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THE STORY OF IDA PFEIFFER
And Her Travels in Many Lands.
[Queen Pomare's Palace, Tahiti: page4.jpg]
"I'll put a girdle round the world."--SHAKESPEARE.
LONDON: THOMAS NELSON AND SONS.
EDINBURGH AND NEW YORK.
1879.
CONTENTS.
I. HER BIOGRAPHY.
II. JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD.
III. NORTHWARD.
IV. LAST TRAVELS.
CHAPTER I.--HER BIOGRAPHY.
Ida Pfeiffer, the celebrated traveller, was born in Vienna on the 14th of
October 1797. She was the third child of a well-to-do merchant, named
Reyer; and at an early age gave indications of an original and
self-possessed character. The only girl in a family of six children, her
predilections were favoured by the circumstances which surrounded her.
She was bold, enterprising, fond of sport and exercise; loved to dress
like her brothers, and to share in their escapades. Dolls she
contemptuously put aside, preferring drums; and a sword or a gun was
valued at much more than a doll's house. In some respects her father
brought her up strictly; she was fed, like her brothers, on a simple and
even meagre diet, and trained to habits of prompt obedience; but he did
nothing to discourage her taste for more violent exercises than are
commonly permitted to young girls.
She was only in her tenth year, however, when he died; and she then
passed naturally enough under the maternal control. Between her own
inclinations and her mother's ideas of maidenly culture a great contest
immediately arose. Her mother could not understand why her daughter
should prefer the violin to the piano, and the masculine trousers to the
feminine petticoat. In fact, she did not understand Ida, and it may be
assumed that Ida did not understand her.
In 1809 Vienna was captured by the French army under Napoleon; a disgrace
which the brave and spirited Ida felt most keenly. Some of the
victorious troops were quartered in the house of her mother, who thought
it politic to treat them with courtesy; but her daughter neither could
nor would repress her dislike. When compelled to be present at a grand
review which Napoleon held in Schonbrunn, she turned her back as the
emperor rode past. For this hazardous manoeuvre she was summarily
punished; and to prevent her from repeating it when the emperor returned,
her mother held her by the shoulders. This was of little avail, however,
as Ida perseveringly persisted in keeping her eyes shut.
At the age of thirteen she was induced to resume the garb of her sex,
though it was some time before she could accustom her wild free movements
to it. She was then placed in charge of a tutor, who seems to have
behaved to her with equal skill and delicacy. "He showed," she says,
"great patience and perseverance in combating my overstrained and
misdirected notions. As I had learned to fear my parents rather than
love them, and this gentleman was, so to speak, the first human being who
had displayed any sympathy and affection for me, I clung to him in return
with enthusiastic attachment, desirous of fulfilling his every wish, and
never so happy as when he appeared satisfied with my exertions. He took
the entire charge of my education, and though it cost me some tears to
abandon my youthful visions, and engage in pursuits I had hitherto
regarded with contempt, to all this I submitted out of my affection for
him. I even learned many feminine avocations, such as sewing, knitting,
and cookery. To him I owed the insight I obtained into the duties and
true position of my sex; and it was he who transformed me from a romp and
a hoyden into a modest quiet girl."
Already a great longing for travel had entered into her mind. She longed
to see new scenes, new peoples, new manners and customs. She read
eagerly every book of travel that fell into her hands; followed with
profound interest the career of every adventurous explorer, and blamed
her sex that prevented her from following their heroic examples. For a
while a change was effected in the current of her thoughts by a strong
attachment which sprung up between her and her teacher, who by this time
had given up his former profession, and had obtained an honourable
position in the civil service. It was natural enough that in the close
intimacy which existed between them such an affection should be
developed. Ida's mother, however, regarded it with grave disapproval,
and exacted from the unfortunate girl a promise that she would neither
see nor write to her humble suitor again. The result was a dangerous
illness: on her recovery from which her mother insisted on her accepting
for a husband Dr. Pfeiffer, a widower, with a grown-up son, but an
opulent and distinguished advocate in Lemberg, who was then on a visit to
Vienna. Though twenty-four years older than Ida, he was attracted by her
grace and simplicity, and offered his hand. Weary of home persecutions,
Ida accepted it, and the marriage took place on May 1st, 1820.
If she did not love her husband, she respected him, and their married
life was not unhappy. In a few months, however, her husband's integrity
led to a sad change of fortune. He had fully and fearlessly exposed the
corruption of the Austrian officials in Galicia, and had thus made many
enemies. He was compelled to give up his office as councillor, and,
deprived of his lucrative practice, to remove to Vienna in search of
employment. Through the treachery of a friend, Ida's fortune was lost,
and the ill-fated couple found themselves reduced to the most painful
exigencies. Vienna, Lemberg, Vienna again, Switzerland, everywhere Dr.
Pfeiffer sought work, and everywhere found himself baffled by some
malignant influence. "Heaven only knows," says Madame Pfeiffer in her
autobiography, "what I suffered during eighteen years of my married life;
not, indeed, from any ill-treatment on my husband's part, but from
poverty and want. I came of a wealthy family, and had been accustomed
from my earliest youth to order and comfort; and now I frequently knew
not where I should lay my head, or find a little money to buy the
commonest necessaries. I performed household drudgery, and endured cold
and hunger; I worked secretly for money, and gave lessons in drawing and
music; and yet, in spite of all my exertions, there were many days when I
could hardly put anything but dry bread before my poor children for their
dinner." These children were two sons, whose education their mother
entirely undertook, until, after old Madame Reyer's death in 1837, she
succeeded to an inheritance, which lifted the little family out of the
slough of poverty, and enabled her to provide her sons with good
teachers.
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As they grew up and engaged successfully in professional pursuits, Madame
Pfeiffer, who had lost her husband in 1838, found herself once more under
the spell of her old passion for travel, and in a position to gratify her
adventurous inclinations. Her means were somewhat limited, it is true,
for she had done much for her husband and her children; but economy was
natural to her, and she retained the simple habits she had acquired in
her childhood. She was strong, healthy, courageous, and accomplished;
and at length, after maturing her plans with anxious consideration, she
took up her pilgrim's staff, and sallied forth alone.
Her first object was to visit the Holy Land, and tread in the hallowed
footsteps of our Lord. For this purpose she left Vienna on the 22nd of
March 1842, and embarked on board the steamer that was to convey her down
the Danube to the Black Sea and the city of Constantinople. Thence she
repaired to Broussa, Beirut, Jaffa, Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, Nazareth,
Damascus, Baalbek, the Lebanon, Alexandria, and Cairo; and travelled
across the sandy Desert to the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea. From
Egypt the adventurous lady returned home by way of Sicily and Italy,
visiting Naples, Rome, and Florence, and arriving in Vienna in December
1842. In the following year she published the record of her experiences
under the title of a "Journey of a Viennese Lady to the Holy Land." It
met with a very favourable reception, to which the simplicity of its
style and the faithfulness of its descriptions fully entitled it.
With the profits of this book to swell her funds, Madame Pfeiffer felt
emboldened to undertake a new expedition; and this time she resolved on a
northern pilgrimage, expecting in _Ultima Thule_ to see nature manifested
on a novel and surprising scale. She began her journey to Iceland on the
10th of April 1845, and returned to Vienna on the 4th of October. Her
narrative of this second voyage will be found, necessarily much abridged
and condensed, in the following pages.
What should she do next? Success had increased her courage and
strengthened her resolution, and she could think of nothing fit for 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.
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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 any
European. Returning to Java, she saw almost all that it had of natural
wonders or natural beauties; and then departed on a tour through the
Sunda Islands and the Moluccas, visiting Banda, Amboyna, Ceram, Ternate,
and Celebes.
For a second time she traversed the Pacific, but on this occasion in an
opposite direction. For two months she saw no land; but on the 27th
September 1853 she arrived at San Francisco. At the close of the year
she sailed for Callao. Thence she repaired to Lima, with the intention
of crossing the Andes, and pushing eastward, through the interior of
South America, to the Brazilian coast. A revolution in Peru, however,
compelled her to change her course, and she returned to Ecuador, which
served as a starting-point for her ascent of the Cordilleras. After
having the good fortune to witness an eruption of Cotopaxi, she retraced
her steps to the west. In the neighbourhood of Guayaquil she had two
very narrow escapes: one, by a fall from her mule; and next, by an
immersion in the River Guaya, which teems with alligators. Meeting with
neither courtesy nor help from the Spanish Americans--a superstitious,
ignorant, and degraded race--she gladly set sail for Panama.
At the end of May she crossed the Isthmus, and sailed to New Orleans.
Thence she ascended the Mississippi to Napoleon, and the Arkansas to Fort
Smith. After suffering from a severe attack of fever, she made her way
to St. Louis, and then directed her steps northward to St. Paul, the
Falls of St. Antony, Chicago, and thence to the great Lakes and "mighty
Niagara." After an excursion into Canada, she visited New York, Boston,
and other great cities, crossed the Atlantic, and arrived in England on
the 21st of November 1854. Two years later she published a narrative of
her adventures, entitled "My Second Journey Round the World."
Madame Pfeiffer's last voyage was to Madagascar, and will be found
described in the closing chapter of this little volume. In Madagascar
she contracted a dangerous illness, from which she temporarily recovered;
but on her return to Europe it was evident that her constitution had
received a severe blow. She gradually grew weaker. Her disease proved
to be cancer of the liver, and the physicians pronounced it incurable.
After lingering a few weeks in much pain, she passed away on the night of
the 27th of October 1858, in the sixty-third year of her age.
* * * * *
This remarkable woman is described as of short stature, thin, and
slightly bent. Her movements were deliberate and measured. She was well-
knit and of considerable physical energy, and her career proves her to
have been possessed of no ordinary powers of endurance. The reader might
probably suppose that she was what is commonly known as a strong-minded
woman. The epithet would suit her if seriously applied, for she had
undoubtedly a clear, strong intellect, a cool judgment, and a resolute
purpose; but it would be thoroughly inapplicable in the satirical sense
in which it is commonly used. There was nothing masculine about her. On
the contrary, she was so reserved and so unassuming that it required an
intimate knowledge of her to fathom the depths of her acquirements and
experience. "In her whole appearance and manner," we are told, "was a
staidness that seemed to indicate the practical housewife, with no
thought soaring beyond her domestic concerns."
This quiet, silent woman, travelled nearly 20,000 miles by land and
150,000 miles by sea; visiting regions which no European had previously
penetrated, or where the bravest men had found it difficult to make their
way; undergoing a variety of severe experiences; opening up numerous
novel and surprising scenes; and doing all this with the scantiest means,
and unassisted by powerful protection or royal patronage. We doubt
whether the entire round of human enterprise presents anything more
remarkable or more admirable. And it would be unfair to suppose that she
was actuated only by a feminine curiosity. Her leading motive was a
thirst for knowledge. At all events, if she had a passion for
travelling, it must be admitted that her qualifications as a traveller
were unusual. Her observation was quick and accurate; her perseverance
was indefatigable; her courage never faltered; while she possessed a
peculiar talent for first awakening, and then profiting by, the interest
and sympathy of those with whom she came in contact.
To assert that her travels were wholly without scientific value would be
unjust; Humboldt and Carl Ritter were of a different opinion. She made
her way into regions which had never before been trodden by European
foot; and the very fact of her sex was a frequent protection in her most
dangerous undertakings. She was allowed to enter many places which would
have been rigorously 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."
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