The Story of Ida Pfeiffer | Page 5

barred against male travellers.
Consequently, her communications have the merit of embodying many
new facts in geography and ethnology, and of correcting numerous
popular errors. Science derived much benefit also from her valuable
collections of plants, animals, and minerals.
We conclude with the eulogium pronounced by an anonymous
biographer:--"Straightforward in character, and endued with high
principle, she possessed, moreover, a wisdom and a promptitude in
action seldom equalled among her sex. Ida Pfeiffer may, indeed, justly
be classed among those women who richly compensate for the absence
of outward charms by their remarkable energy and the rare qualities of
their minds."
[Rio Janeiro: page29.jpg]
CHAPTER II.
--JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD.
Prompted by a boundless thirst for knowledge and an insatiable desire
to see new places and new things, Madame Pfeiffer left Vienna on the
1st of May 1846, and proceeded to Hamburg, where she embarked on

board a Danish brig, the Caroline, for Rio Janeiro. As the voyage was
divested of romantic incidents, we shall land the reader without delay at
the great sea-port of the Brazilian empire.
The traveller's description of it is not very favourably coloured. The
streets are dirty, and the houses, even the public buildings, insignificant.
The Imperial Palace has not the slightest architectural pretensions. The
finest square is the Largo do Roico, but this would not be admitted into
Belgravia. It is impossible to speak in high terms even of the churches,
the interior of which is not less disappointing than their exterior. And
as is the town, so are the inhabitants. Negroes and mulattoes do not
make up attractive pictures. Some of the Brazilian and Portuguese
women, however, have handsome and expressive countenances.
Most writers indulge in glowing descriptions of the scenery and climate
of the Brazils; of the cloudless, radiant sky, and the magic of the never-
ending spring. Madame Ida Pfeiffer admits that the vegetation is richer,
and the soil more fruitful, and nature more exuberantly active than in
any other part of the world; but still, she says, it must not be thought
that all is good and beautiful, and that there is nothing to weaken the
powerful effect of the first impression. The constant blaze of colour
after a while begins to weary; the eye wants rest; the monotony of the
verdure oppresses; and we begin to understand that the true loveliness
of spring is only rightly appreciated when it succeeds the harsher
aspects of winter.
[Invasion of Ants: page33.jpg]
Europeans suffer much from the climate. The moisture is very
considerable, and renders the heat, which in the hot months rises to 99
degrees in the shade, and 122 degrees in the sun, more difficult to bear.
Fogs and mists are disagreeably common; and whole tracts of country
are often veiled by an impenetrable mist.
The Brazils suffer, too, from a plague of insects,--from mosquitoes,
ants, baraten, and sand-fleas; against the attacks of which the traveller
finds it difficult to defend himself. The ants often appear in trains of
immeasurable length, and pursue their march over every obstacle that

stands in the way. Madame Pfeiffer, during her residence at a friend's
house, beheld the advance of a swarm of this description. It was really
interesting to see what a regular line they formed; nothing could make
them deviate from the direction on which they had first determined.
Madame Geiger, her friend, told her she was awakened one night by a
terrible itching: she sprang out of bed immediately, and lo, a swarm of
ants were passing over it! There is no remedy for the infliction, except
to wait, with as much patience as one can muster, for the end of the
procession, which frequently lasts four to six hours. It is possible, to
some extent, to protect provisions against their attacks, by placing the
legs of the tables in basins filled with water. Clothes and linen are
enclosed in tightly-fitting tin canisters.
The worst plague of all, however, are the sand-fleas, which attach
themselves to one's toes, underneath the nail, or sometimes to the soles
of the feet. When a person feels an irritation in these parts, he must
immediately look at the place; and if he discern a tiny black point,
surrounded by a small white ring, the former is the chigoe, or sand- flea,
and the latter the eggs which it has deposited in the flesh. The first
thing to be done is to loosen the skin all round as far as the white skin
is visible; the whole deposit is then extracted, and a little snuff strewn
in the empty space. The blacks perform this operation with
considerable skill.
Rich as the Brazils are in natural productions, they are wanting in many
articles which Europeans regard as of the first importance. There are
sugar and coffee, it is true;