A Visit to the Holy Land, Egypt, and Italy

A Visit to the Holy Land, by Ida
Pfeiffer,

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Translated by H. W. Dulcken
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Title: A Visit to the Holy Land
Author: Ida Pfeiffer
Release Date: June 8, 2004 [eBook #12561]
Language: English
Character set encoding: US-ASCII
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VISIT TO
THE HOLY LAND***

This ebook was prepared by Les Bowler, St. Ives, Dorset.

VISIT TO THE HOLY LAND, EGYPT, AND ITALY

[Illustration 1. Frontispiece:--JERUSALEM. ill1.jpg]
By Madame Ida Pfeiffer.
Translated from the German by H. W. Dulcken.
[Illustration 2. Title-page:--NAZARETH. ill2.jpg]

PREFACE BY THE VIENNA PUBLISHER
For two centuries the princes and nations of the West were accustomed
to wander towards the land of the morning. In vain was the noblest
blood poured forth in streams in the effort to wrest the country of our
heavenly Teacher from the grasp of the infidel; and though the
Christian Europe of the present day forbears to renew a struggle which,
considering the strength that has been gradually increasing for the last
six hundred years, might prove an easy one, we cannot wonder that
millions of the votaries of Christianity should cherish an earnest
longing to wander in the paths the Redeemer has trod, and to view with
their own eyes the traces of the Saviour's progress from the cradle to
the grave.
In the generality of cases, however, the hardships, dangers, and
difficulties of such a journey were sufficient to overthrow the bravest
resolution; and thus the wishes of the majority remained unfulfilled.
Few men were found to possess the degree of strength and endurance
requisite for the carrying out of such an undertaking; but that a delicate
lady of the higher classes, a native of Vienna, should have the heroism
to do what thousands of men failed to achieve, seemed almost
incredible.
In her earliest youth she earnestly desired to perform this journey;
descriptions of the Holy Land were perused by her with peculiar
interest, and a book of Eastern travel had more charms for her than the

most glowing accounts of Paris or London.
It was not, however, until our Authoress had reached a riper age, and
had finished the education of her sons, that she succeeded in carrying
into effect the ardent aspiration of her youth.
On the 2d of March, 1842, she commenced her journey alone, without
companions, but fully prepared to bear every ill, to bid defiance to
every danger, and to combat every difficulty. That this undertaking
should have succeeded may almost be looked upon as a wonder.
Far from desiring publicity, she merely kept a diary, in order to retain
the recollections of her tour during her later life, and to impart to her
nearest relatives the story of her fortunes. Every evening, though often
greatly exhausted with heat, thirst, and the hardships of travel, she
never failed to make notes in pencil of the occurrences of the day,
frequently using a sand-mound or the back of a camel as a table, while
the other members of the caravan lay stretched around her, completely
tired out.
It was in the house of my friend Halm that I first heard of this
remarkable woman, at a time when she had not yet completed her
journey; and every subsequent account of Madame Pfeiffer increased
my desire to make her acquaintance.
In manners and appearance I found her to resemble many other women
who have distinguished themselves by fortitude, firmness of soul, and
magnanimity; and who are in private life the most simple and
unaffected, the most modest, and consequently also the most agreeable
of beings.
My request to read our Authoress's journal was granted with some
timidity; and I am ready to assert that seldom has a book so irresistibly
attracted me, or so completely fixed my attention from beginning to
end, as this.
The simple and unadorned relation of facts, the candour, combined
with strong sound sense, which appear throughout, might put to shame

the bombastic striving after originality of many a modern author. The
scheme and execution of the work are complete and agreeable; strict
truth shines forth from every page, and no one can doubt but that so
pure and noble a mind must see things in a right point of view. This
circumstance is sufficient in itself to raise the book above many
descriptions of travel to the Holy Land, whose authors, trusting to the
fact that their assertions could not easily be disproved, have indulged
their fancy,