The Story of Ida Pfeiffer | Page 3

her
energies and sufficient for her curiosity but a voyage round the world!
She argued that greater privations and fatigue than she had endured in
Syria and Iceland she could scarcely be called upon to encounter. The
outlay did not frighten her; for she had learned by experience how little
is required, if the traveller will but practise the strictest economy and
resolutely forego many comforts and all superfluities. Her savings
amounted to a sum insufficient, perhaps, for such travellers as Prince
Puckler-Muskau, Chateaubriand, or Lamartine for a fortnight's
excursion; but for a woman who wanted to see much, but cared for no
personal indulgence, it seemed enough to last during a journey of two
or three years. And so it proved.
The heroic woman set out alone on the 1st of May 1846, and proceeded
first to Rio Janeiro. On the 3rd of February 1847, she sailed round Cape
Horn, and on the 2nd of March landed at Valparaiso. Thence she
traversed the broad Pacific to Tahiti, where she was presented to Queen
Pomare. In the beginning of July we find her at Macao; afterwards she
visited Hong Kong and Canton, where the appearance of a white
woman produced a remarkable and rather disagreeable sensation. By
way of Singapore she proceeded to Ceylon, which she carefully
explored, making excursions to Colombo, Candy, and the famous
temple of Dagoba. Towards the end of October she landed at Madras,
and thence went on to Calcutta, ascending the Ganges to the holy city
of Benares, and striking across the country to Bombay. Late in the
month of April 1848 she sailed for Persia, and from Bushire traversed
the interior as far as legend-haunted Bagdad. After a pilgrimage to the
ruins of Ctesiphon and Babylon, this bold lady accompanied a caravan
through the dreary desert to Mosul and the vast ruins of Nineveh, and

afterwards to the salt lake of Urumiyeh and the city of Tabreez. It is
certain that no woman ever accomplished a more daring exploit! The
mental as well as physical energy required was enormous; and only a
strong mind and a strong frame could have endured the many hardships
consequent on her undertaking--the burning heat by day, the
inconveniences of every kind at night, the perils incidental to her sex,
meagre fare, a filthy couch, and constant apprehension of attack by
robber bands. The English consul at Tabreez, when she introduced
herself to him, found it hard to believe that a woman could have
accomplished such an enterprise.
At Tabreez, Madame Pfeiffer was presented to the Viceroy, and
obtained permission to visit his harem. On August 11th, 1848, she
resumed her journey, crossing Armenia, Georgia, and Mingrelia; she
touched afterwards at Anapa, Kertch, and Sebastopol, landed at Odessa,
and returned home by way of Constantinople, Greece, the Ionian
Islands, and Trieste, arriving in Vienna on the 4th of November 1848,
just after the city had been recaptured from the rebels by the troops of
Prince Windischgratz.
[Constantinople: page21.jpg]
Ida Pfeiffer was now a woman of note. Her name was known in every
civilized country; and it was not unnatural that great celebrity should
attach to a female who, alone, and without the protection of rank or
official recommendation, had travelled 2800 miles by land, and 35,000
miles by sea. Hence, her next work, "A Woman's Journey Round the
World," was most favourably received, and translated both into French
and English. A summary of it is included in our little volume.
The brave adventurer at first, on her return home, spoke of her
travelling days as over, and, at the age of fifty-four, as desirous of
peace and rest. But this tranquil frame of mind was of very brief
duration. Her love of action and thirst of novelty could not long be
repressed; and as she felt herself still strong and healthy, with energies
as quick and lively as ever, she resolved on a second circuit of the
globe. Her funds having been increased by a grant of 1500 florins from
the Austrian Government, she left Vienna on the 18th of March 1851,

proceeded to London, and thence to Cape Town, where she arrived on
the 11th of August. For a while she hesitated between a visit to the
interior of Africa and a voyage to Australia; but at last she sailed to
Singapore, and determined to explore the East Indian Archipelago. At
Sarawak, the British settlement in Borneo, she was warmly welcomed
by Sir James Brooke, a man of heroic temper and unusual capacities for
command and organization. She adventured among the Dyaks, and
journeyed westward to Pontianak, and the diamond mines of Landak.
We next meet with her in Java, and afterwards in Sumatra, where she
boldly trusted herself among the cannibal Battas, who had hitherto
resented the intrusion of