Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/630

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PFE.

the chief brunt of the attack, that the assailant made off after inflicting several wounds on her arm; he was perhaps induced to fly by the fortunate approach of two horsemen. Nothing daunted by this maladventure, Madame Pfeiffer, when her wounds were dressed, was ready to pursue her wanderings, and bidding adieu to her slow companion, proceeded into the interior to visit the Puri or native inhabitants of the Brazilian forests. Mounted on a mule, and accompanied by a single guide, she set forth, and passed through swamps, and forests, and trackless llanos seldom trodden by human feet. Weeks and months she spent in these wild solitudes, sometimes tarrying awhile in the wigwams of the natives, whom with ready tact she always managed to conciliate, so that the best quarters were placed at her disposal, and grand hunts and national dances got up for her especial amusement. She had thought of crossing the continent from Rio to the Pacific, but found this impossible, in consequence of the disorganized state of the country; she therefore left Brazil in a small sailing vessel, chosen for the sake of economy, went round Cape Horn, and after stopping awhile at Chili, again took ship for China, by the way of Tahiti, which island she reached, but found it difficult to obtain accommodation there, as it was very full of French troops. She had been ill on her voyage, but having, as we are told, a sovereign contempt for drugs, "prescribed for herself salt-water baths in a cask," by which means she was restored to health. Having in a fortnight seen as much as she desired to of high and low life in Tahiti, and acquainted herself with its natural beauties, by making a tour round the island on foot, she was ready to advance another step in her journey, and hey presto! she is next in the Celestial Empire, where at Canton she manages to look about her a little, notwithstanding the dangers to which she is exposed from the prejudice of the people against the English, and especially against a woman, who seemed to have come among them to fulfil a prophecy, which said that the empire should be destroyed by such. From China to Calcutta was but a step or two for this seven-leagued-booted lady, and accordingly we next find her there, then at Bombay, which she left by a small steamer bound to Bassora. In this vessel, which was over-crowded, she had an attack of fever, and lay under the captain's dining-table on the quarterdeck until she was safely through it (the fever, not the table.) She went to Bagdad, and from thence to Mosul, travelling across the desert for a fortnight on a mule, sleeping on the bare ground, and feeding on the meanest fare. At this latter place she made up her Diary, and the curiosities she had collected, and despatched them to Europe, having yet to traverse the most dangerous part of her journey.

After many hairbreadth escapes and startling adventures, Madame Pfeiffer manages to circumvent her treacherous guide and cross the Koordish Mountains, and reach the missionary station at Oroomiah, where she was hospitably entertained for awhile. From thence she continued her journey through Persia, and returned home by way of Russia, Constantinople, and Athens, reaching Vienna on the 4th. of November, 1848. After three years of rest and quiet, during part of which she was occupied in preparing for publication the journal of this great tour, in May, 1851, Madame Pfeiffer visited London, and from thence set sail to the Cape of Good Hope