Retarded by contrary winds and calms, the ship was a full month in making its way from Hamburg through the English Channel—as long a time as it required to get from thence to the equator. On the 16th of September the harbor of Rio Janeiro was reached. From that port Ida Pfeiffer made several excursions into the interior of the country. On one of these expeditions she was attacked by a runaway negro slave, whose purpose appeared to be robbery and murder. The miscreant was armed with a knife; she received more than one wound, and only owed her life to casual help which arrived at the critical moment.
At the beginning of December she left Rio Janeiro, sailed round Cape Horn on the 3d of February, 1847, and landed at Valparaiso on the 2d of March. The aspect of tropical scenery, particularly in Brazil, made a vivid impression upon her; but she was greatly disgusted at the state of things in what had been Spanish America. Quickly re-embarking, she traversed the Pacific Ocean, and landed at the island of Otaheite at the end of April. She was presented to Queen Pomare, of whose court she afterward published a sufficiently spirited account, which was read with much interest. The state of Europe at that period was one of such tranquillity that, for mere want of matter, the papers were often full of Queen Pomare for weeks together. Her Otaheitan majesty has now gone considerably out of fashion, inasmuch as Europe has enough to do with its own concerns, and has neither time nor inclination to patronize happy islands in the far Pacific.
From Otaheite the enterprising voyager proceeded to China, arriving at Macao in the beginning of July. She afterward visited Hong Kong and the city of Canton, in which she would gladly have spent more time, had not the appearance of a European woman been too much for the weak nerves of the natives of the Celestial Empire. The visitor found herself in danger of being insulted by the mob, and accordingly turned her back on the fortunate country, paid a short visit to Singapore, and proceeded to Ceylon, landing there in the middle of October. She traversed this beautiful island in various directions, and saw Colombo, Candy, and the famous temple of Dagona. At the end of October she landed on the continent of India, at Madras, remained for some time at Calcutta, proceeded up the Ganges to Benares, admired the ruins of Saranath, and visited Cawnpoor, Delhi, Indore, and Bombay. She also had an opportunity of seeing the celebrated rock temples of Adjunta and Ellora, and the islands of Elephanta and Salsette. The houses of many Indians of rank were thrown open to her, and she showed herself every where a close observer of foreign manners, customs, and peculiarities. At more than one tiger-hunt she was also present, and at a suttee. The position and proceedings of the English missionaries also excited her especial attention.
At the end of April, 1848, we find Ida Pfeiffer again at sea, bearing her pilgrim’s staff toward Persia. From Bushire she intended to proceed to Shiraz, Ispahan, and Teheran, but was deterred from this project by disturbances in the interior of the country, and turned her footsteps toward Mesopotamia. Through the bay Shat-el-Arab she betook herself to Bassora, and afterward to Bagdad. After an excursion to the ruins of Ctesiphon and Babylon, she traveled with a caravan through the Desert to Mosul and the neighboring ruins of Nineveh, and afterward to Urumia and Tebris. This expedition through Mesopotamia and Persia may be reckoned among the most daring exploits of this courageous woman. A large amount of mental energy, as well as of physical stamina, was required, to enable her to endure without fainting the many hardships of the undertaking—the burning heat by day, discomfort of every kind at night, miserable fare, an unclean couch, and constant apprehension of attack by robber bands. When she introduced herself at Tebris to the English consul, he would not believe that a woman could have achieved such a feat.
At Tebris our traveler was introduced to the vice-king Vali-Ahd, and received permission to visit his harem. On the 11th of August, 1848, she resumed her journey through Armenia, Georgia, Mingrelia, by Eriwan, Tiflis, and Kutais to Redutkale; she touched at Anapa, Kertch, and Sebastopol, landed at Odessa, and returned home by Constantinople, Greece, the Ionian Islands, and Trieste to Vienna, where she arrived on the 4th of November, 1848, just after the taking of the city by the troops of Prince Windischgrätz. It seemed that even in her fatherland, distracted as it was by faction, she was to find no rest.
Ida Pfeiffer’s fame spread more and more after this journey round the world; for a woman who, trusting to herself alone for protection, could travel 2800 miles by land and 35,000 by sea, was looked upon, not unnaturally, as a remarkable character. Her third work, which appeared in Vienna in 1850, under the title “A Woman’s Journey round the World,” was well received. It was translated twice into English, and afterward appeared in a French garb.
It was now for some time Ida Pfeiffer’s purpose to consider her traveling days as over, and to settle down in repose. But this resigned frame of mind did not last long. When, after selling her collections, and preparing and publishing her journal, she found herself in the enjoyment of undiminished health and strength, she gradually began to entertain the idea of a second voyage round the world. Her slender traveling fund was this time increased by a grant of 1500 florins from the Austrian government; and on the 18th of March, 1851, she left Vienna, betaking herself first to London, as she had no fixed goal in view, and intended to wait till an occasion offered for traveling farther. Even when she had left London, and arrived in Cape Town on the 11th of August, she had come to no definite determination. For a long time her mind wavered between the intention of visiting the interior of Africa and that of proceeding to Australia, till at last she sailed to Singapore, and decided to visit the Sunda Islands. Landing on the west coast of Borneo, at Sarawak, she received a hospitable welcome and energetic assistance from Sir James Brooke, who has established an independent principality in these regions. During an excursion she made among the savage, independent Dyaks, she was not only spared by the “head hunters,” but was even received with great cordiality. Proceeding to Sinting, she continued her journey westward to Pontianak and the diamond mines of Landak. Every where the Dutch officials, civil and military, offered her the readiest assistance, without which she would have found it impossible to extend her travels so far as she did in the Indian Archipelago. Ida Pfeiffer’s design was to push on from Pontianak directly through the interior of the island, a region never yet traversed by Europeans; but she could endure no one to be her guide or companion on so dangerous an expedition. She therefore cast her eyes on Java, and landed at Batavia at the end of May, 1852. Here, likewise, she received every assistance and support from the Dutch authorities, and, in consequence of their example, from the native grandees also. This she often afterward publicly acknowledged, with the warmest thanks.
On the 8th of July, 1852, her journey to Sumatra began; and this she has declared to be the most interesting of all her undertakings. From Padang she proceeded to trust herself among the Battas, who are cannibals, and have never suffered any European to come among them. Though the savages opposed her farther advance, she passed forward through the primeval forest, among a population of man-eaters, almost as far as the Lake Eier-Tau. But here she was compelled by threatening spears to retreat, after having been repeatedly assured that she should be killed and eaten. On the 7th of October she got back to Padang. In Sumatra she was twice attacked by the malignant intermittent fever of the country.
Returning to Java, she made excursions to the principalities of Djokdjokarta and Surakarta, to the temple Boro Budoo, and to Surabaga. From thence she sailed to several of the smaller Sunda Islands, and to the Moluccas, Banda, Amboyna, Saparna, Ceram, and Ternate; remained for a few months among the wild Alfores, and closed her rambles among the Sunda Islands by a visit to Celebes.
Again she traversed the Pacific to a distance of 10,150 miles to visit California. For two months she saw nothing but sea and sky. On the 27th of September, 1853, she landed at San Francisco, visited the gold-washing districts on the Sacramento and the Yuba, and slept in the wigwams of the red-skins of Rogue River.