PREFACE. It was at Buenos Ayres that I received the intelligence of the death of my beloved mother. Shortly before her decease she had expressed the wish that I should arrange and prepare for publication the papers she left concerning her last voyage to Madagascar. The dangerous illness which befell her in the Mauritius immediately after she had left Madagascar, and which, in spite of the most careful medical attention, and the kindest nursing on the part of her friends, proved fatal, prevented her from doing this herself. When, after a few months, I returned from Buenos Ayres to Rio de Janeiro, I found my mother's papers waiting for me there; but the loss was too recent, and my grief too violent, to allow me to read them then, much less to peruse them with the care and attention which must necessarily precede their publication. At length I made up my mind to the task. I was obliged to go through it, for it was my mother's last wish. Filial duty induced me to leave my dear mother's journal as little altered as possible. In thus giving this last work of my mother to the world, I trust that our kind readers will receive it with the indulgence they have so frequently extended to the other works of the late enterprising traveler. OSCAR PFEIFFER. Rio de Janeiro, July 8th, 1860. CONTENTS. Biography of Ida Pfeiffer...... CHAPTER I. .......Page ix Departure from Vienna.-Linz.-Salzburg.-Munich.-The Artists' Festival.-The King of Bavaria.—Berlin.-Alexander von Humboldt.-Hamburg......... CHAPTER II. 41 Arrival in Holland.-Amsterdam.-Dutch Architecture.-Picture Galleries.-Mr. Costa's Diamond-cutting Works.-The Haarlem Lake.—A Dutch Cattle-stable.-Utrecht.-The Students' Festival.................. 51 CHAPTER III. Zaandam. The little Village of Broeck, celebrated for its Cleanliness.— Strange Head-dresses.-The Hague.-Celebrated Pictures.-Leyden.Rotterdam.-Departure from Holland............................. CHAPTER IV. ... 63 London.-Paris.-Sitting of the Geographical Society.-News from Madagascar.-Popular Life in Paris.-Sights.-A Tale of Murder.-Versailles. -St. Cloud.-Celebration of Sunday. CHAPTER V. 72 Return to London and Holland.—Separation Festival in Amsterdam.-Departure from Rotterdam.-My traveling Companions.-Emigrant Children.-Story of a poor Girl.-Cape Town.-Fortunate Meeting.—Alteration of my traveling Plans....................... CHAPTER VI. 87 Voyage to the Island of Bourbon.—The Mauritius.-Wealth of the Island. 103 A BIOGRAPHY OF IDA PFEIFFER (COMPILED FROM NOTES LEFT BY HERSELF). SEVERAL biographies of Ida Pfeiffer are already scattered through various encyclopædias and periodicals. These are based partly on oral communications made by the deceased lady, partly on particulars collected from her friends. No authentic sketch of her life has, however, yet been published, though many whose sympathy has accompanied the dauntless voyager on her dangerous way will doubtless be glad to hear something of the earlier life of Ida Pfeiffer. In remarkable people, the germs of extraordinary faculties are generally recognizable in early youth; and those readers who have followed the course of a remarkable life from its meridian to its close will doubtless be gratified by the opportunity of casting a glance backward to its early years, when the seeds of future distinction were sown. This consideration will probably be thought a sufficient justification for publishing the following pages; the more so as the facts given in this biographical sketch rest exclusively on the authority of the heroine herself. Madame Ida Pfeiffer left behind her a short outline of her life written by her own hand, and her family very courteously permitted this manuscript to be used. It is to be followed by summary of her travels, and by her diary in Madagascar, to which her son, Mr. Oscar Pfeiffer, has added the narrative of her sufferings and death. Thus the whole career of the late adventurous pilgrim, with particular reference to the latest circumstances of her checkered life, namely, her in |