nd expedition to the tropics
in 1865. Four years were spent in South America, each country that he
visited vieing with the other in doing him honor. Magnificent gifts were
heaped on him by his enthusiastic Spanish-American admirers, and life
was one continual ovation. In Peru he gave sixty concerts, and was
presented with a costly decoration of gold, diamond, and pearl. In Chili
the Government voted him a grand gold medal, which the board of public
schools, the board of visitors of the hospitals, and the municipal
government of Valparaiso supplemented by gold medals, in recognition
of Gottschalk's munificence in the benefit concerts he gave for various
public and humane institutions. The American pianist, through the whole
of his career, had shown the traditional benevolence of his class in
offering his services to the advancement of worthy objects. A similar
reception awaited Gottschalk in Montevideo, where the artist became
doubly the object of admiration by the substantial additions he made
to the popular educational fund. While in this city he organized and
conducted a great musical festival in which three hundred musicians
engaged, exclusive of the Italian Opera company then at Montevideo.

The spring of 1869 brought Gottschalk to the last scene of his musical
triumphs, for the span of his career was about to close over him. Rio
Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, gave Gottschalk an ardent reception,
which made this city properly the culmination of his toils and triumphs.
Gottschalk wrote that his performances created such a _furore_ that
boxes commanded a premium of seventy-five dollars, and single seats
fetched twenty-five. He was frequently entertained by Dom Pedro at the
palace; in every way the Brazilians testified their lavish admiration of
his artistic talents. In the midst of his success Gottschalk was seized
with yellow fever, and brought very low. Indeed, the report came back
to New York that he was dead, a report, however, which his own letters,
written from the bed of convalescence, soon contradicted.

In October of 1869 Gottschalk was appointed by the emperor to take the
leadership of a great festival, in which eight hundred performers in
orchestra and chorus would take part. Indefatigable labor, in rehearsing
his musicians and organizing the almost innumerable details of such an
affair, acted on a frame which had not yet recovered its strength from a
severe attack of illness. With difficulty he dragged hi