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CELEBRATED WOMEN TRAVELLERS.

[Illustration: YOKOHAMA.]




Celebrated Women Travellers

OF THE

_NINETEENTH CENTURY_

BY

W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & CO.
1903




CONTENTS.


PAGE

COUNTESS DORA D'ISTRIA                17

THE PRINCESS OF BELGIOJOSO            48

MADAME HOMMAIRE DE HELL               66

MADAME LEONIE D'AUNET                126

MISS FREDERIKA BREMER                134

MADEMOISELLE ALEXINA TINNE           184

MADAME IDA PFEIFFER                  215

MADAME DE BOURBOULON                 270

LADY HESTER STANHOPE                 302

LADY BRASSEY                         340

LADY MORGAN                          379

MRS. TROLLOPE                        385

MISS HARRIET MARTINEAU               404

MISS ISABELLA BIRD                   418

LADY FLORENCE DIXIE                  437

MISS GORDON CUMMING                  443

FLORENCE AND ROSAMOND HILL           452

LADY BARKER                          456

"MAGYARLAND"                         458




WOMAN AS A TRAVELLER




COUNTESS DORA D'ISTRIA.


The Princess Helena Koltzoff-Massalsky, better known by her pseudonym of
Dora d'Istria,[1] came of the family of the Ghikas, formerly princes of
Wallachia, and was born at Bucharest, on the 22nd of January, 1829.
Through the care and conscientiousness of her instructor, Mons.
Papadopoulos, and her own remarkable capacity, she acquired a very
complete and comprehensive education. When but eleven years old, she
composed a charming little story, and before she had reached womanhood,
undertook a translation of the Iliad. She showed no inclination for the
frivolous amusements of a frivolous society. Her view of life and its
responsibilities was a serious one, and she addressed all her energies
to the work of self-improvement and self-culture. She read and re-read
the literary masterpieces of England, France and Germany. As a linguist
she earned special distinction.

"Her intellectual faculties," says her master, M. Papadopoulos,
"expanded with so much rapidity, that the professors charged with her
instruction could not keep any other pupil abreast of her in the same
studies. Not only did she make a wholly unexpected and unhoped-for
progress, but it became necessary for her teachers to employ with her a
particular method: her genius could not submit to the restraint of
ordinary rules."

She was still in the springtime and flush of youth, when she went on a
tour to Germany, and visited several German courts, where she excited
the same sentiments of admiration as in her own country; it was
impossible to see her without being attracted by so much intellect,
grace and amiability. Travelling enlarged her horizon: she was able to
survey, as from a watch-tower, the course of great political events, and
she found herself mixing continually with the most celebrated savants
and statesmen of the age. Her friendly relations with persons of very
diverse opinions, while enabling her to compare and contrast a great
variety of theories, did but strengthen in her "the idea and sentiment
of liberty, which can alone conduct society to its true aim." Finally,
from the Italian revolution of 1848, which awoke her warmest
sympathies, she learned to understand the fatal consequences of despotic
government, as well as the inevitable mistakes of freedom, when first
unfettered and allowed to walk alone.

At the age of twenty she was married (February, 1849), and soon
afterwards she set out for St. Petersburg, where she was recognised as
the ornament of the higher society. In the midst of her numerous
engagements, in the midst of the homage rendered to her wit and grace,
she found time to collect a mass of valuable notes on the condition and
inner life of the great Russian Empire, several provinces of which she
knew from personal observation. From St. Petersburg to Moscow, from
Odessa to Revel, her untiring activity carried her. Most social
questions are at work under an apparent calm, and offer, therefore,
subjects well worthy of careful study, especially to so grave and clear
an intellect as that of Princess Dora d'Istria, who possessed, in the
highest degree, the faculty of steady meditation amidst the movement and
the world-stir that surrounded her. The world, charmed by her personal
attractions, had no suspicion of the restlessness and activity of her
inquiring mind.

Her departure to the South brought her inquiries and investigations to
an end. She had suffered so much from the terrible winters of the great
Northern capital, and her health was so seriously shaken, that her
doctors presented to her the grave alternative of departure or death
(1855).

The Princess Dora d'Istria, as we have hinted, was a fine linguist. She
made herself mistress of nine languages. Her historical erudition was
profound; her mind was continually in search of new knowledge. She
seemed to have inherited from one of her illustrious friends, M. von
Humboldt, that "fever of study," that insatiable ardour, which, if not
genius, is closely akin to it.

The great Berlin philosopher and the young Wallachian writer lived for
some time in an intellectual confraternity, which, no doubt, is to this
day one of the most valuable souvenirs of the brilliant author of "La
Vie Monastique dans l'Eglise Orientale." In reference to this subject,
we take leave to quote a passage from the graceful pen of M. Charles
Yriarte:--

       *       *       *       *       *

"The scene lies at Sans-Souci, in one of the celebrated saloons where
the great Frederick supped with Voltaire, d'Alembert and Maupertuis.
'Old Fritz' has been dead a hundred years; but the court of Prussia,
under the rule of Frederick William, is still the asylum of _beaux
esprits_. The time is the first and brilliant period of his reign, when
the king gathers around him artists and men of science, and writes to
Humboldt invitations to dinner in verse, which he seals with the great
Seal of State, in order that the philosopher may have no excuse for
absenting himself. A few years later, and, alas, artists and poets give
place to soldiers!

"The whole of the royal family are collected at a summer fete, and with
them the most famous names in art and science, and some strangers of
distinction.

"The prince has recently received a consignment of ancient sculptures
and works of art, and while the royal family saunter among the groves of
Charlottenhof, M. von Humboldt and the aged Rauch, the Prussian
sculptor, examine them, and investigate their secrets. Rauch is a grand
type of a man. This senior or _doyen_ of the German artists, who died
overwhelmed with glory and honours, had been a _valet de chambre_ in the
Princess Louisa's household. He had followed the princess to Rome,
where, among the masterpieces of antiquity and of the Renaissance, she
had divined the budding genius of him who was to carve in everlasting
marble the monumental figure of the great Frederick.

"These two illustrious men are bending over a basso-relievo with a Greek
inscription, when the king enters; he is accompanied by a gentleman, who
has on either arm a fair young girl in the spring of her youth and
beauty. The king invites M. von Humboldt to explain the inscription, and
the gallant old man goes straight to one of the young girls, excusing
himself for not attempting to translate it in the presence of one of the
greatest Hellenists of the time.

"'Come, your Highness,' he says,'make the oracle speak.'

"And the young princess reads off the inscription fluently, setting down
M. von Humboldt's ignorance to the account of his politeness.

"The king compliments the handsome stranger, and Rauch, struck by her
great beauty, inquires of his friend who may be this fair, sweet Muse,
who gives to the marbles the tongue of eloquence, who, young and lovely
as an antique Venus, seems already as wise and prudent as Minerva.

"You see that it is a pretty _tableau de genre_, worthy of the brush of
Mentzel, the German painter, or of the French Meissonier. For background
the canvas will have the picturesque Louis Quatorze interiors of
Sans-Souci; in the foreground, the king and the great Humboldt, who
inclines towards the young girl; farther off, her sister leaning on
their father's arm, and the aged Rauch, who closes up the scene and
holds in his hand the bas-relief.

"That young girl, who has just given a proof of her erudition is Helena
Ghika, now famous under the literary pseudonym of Dora d'Istria. The old
man is the Prince Michael, her father, whose family, originally of
Epirus, has for the last two centuries been established in the Danubian
Principalities, and has supplied Wallachia with Hospodars. The other
young lady is Helena's sister."

       *       *       *       *       *

Dora d'Istria was one of those fine, quick intelligences which look upon
the world--that is, upon humanity--as, in the poet's words, "The proper
study of mankind."

"It has always seemed to me," she one day observed, "that women, in
travelling, might complete the task of the most scientific travellers;
for, as a fact, woman carries certain special aptitudes into literature.
She perceives more quickly than man everything connected with national
life and the manners of the people. A wide field, much too neglected,
lies open, therefore, to her observation. But, in order that she may
fitly explore it, she needs, what she too often fails to possess, a
knowledge of languages and of history, as well as the capability of
conforming herself to the different habitudes of nations, and the
faculty of enduring great fatigues.

"Happily for myself, I was not deficient in linguistic knowledge. In my
family the only language made use of was French. M. Papadopoulos at an
early age taught me Greek, which in the East is as important as French
in the West. The Germanic tongues terrified me at first, the peoples of
Pelasgic origin having no taste for those idioms. But I was industrious
enough and patient enough to triumph over all such difficulties, and
though the study of languages is far from being popular in the Latin
countries, I did not cease to pursue it until the epoch of my marriage.

"M. Papadopoulos has often referred to my passionate love of history
even in my early childhood. This passion has constantly developed. The
more I have travelled, the more clearly I have perceived that one cannot
know a people unless one knows thoroughly its antecedents; that is, if
one be not fully acquainted with its annals and its chief writers. In
studying a nation only in its contemporary manifestations, one is
exposed to the error into which one would assuredly fall if one
attempted to estimate the character of an individual after living only a
few hours in his company.

"Besides, to understand nations thoroughly, it is necessary to examine,
without any aristocratic prejudice, all the classes of which they are
composed. In Switzerland, I lived among the mountains, that I might gain
an exact idea of the Alpine life. In Greece, I traversed on horseback
the solitudes of the Peloponnesus. In Italy, I have established
relations with people of all faiths and conditions, and whenever the
opportunity has occurred, have questioned with equal curiosity the
merchant and the savant, the fisherman and the politician. When I appear
to be resting myself, I am really making those patient investigations,
indispensable to all who would conscientiously study a country."

       *       *       *       *       *

After residing for some years in Russia, she felt the need of living
thenceforward in a freer atmosphere, and betook herself to Switzerland.
Her sojourn in that country--a kind of Promised Land for all those who
in their own country have never enjoyed the realisation of their
aspirations--was very advantageous to her. She learned in Switzerland to
love and appreciate liberty, as in Italy the fine arts, and in England
industry.

The work of Dora d'Istria upon German Switzerland is less descriptive
than philosophical. The plan she has adopted is open perhaps to
criticism: such mixture of poetry and erudition may offend severer
tastes; we grow indulgent, however, when we perceive that the writer
preserves her individuality while passing from enthusiastic dithyrambs
to the most abstract historical dissertations.

It is not, however, the woman of letters so much as the patient untiring
female traveller whom we seek to introduce to our readers in these
pages. We attempt therefore, no analysis of her works,[2] but proceed to
speak of her mountaineering experiences: the most important is the
ascent of the Moench, a summit of the Jungfrau system--one of the lofty
snow-clad peaks which enclose the ice-rivers of the Oberaar and the
Unteraar. We shall allow Madame Dora d'Istria to conduct us in person
through the difficulties of so arduous an enterprise.

       *       *       *       *       *

"When I announced my project of scaling the highest summits of the Alps,
the astonishment was general. Some imagined that it was a mere whim
which would be fully satisfied by the noise it caused. Others exclaimed
against a hardihood willing to encounter so many perils. None were
inclined to regard my words as dictated by an intimate conviction. None
could accustom themselves to the idea of so extraordinary a scheme. The
excitement was redoubled at the departure of the different telegraphic
despatches summoning from their village homes the guides spoken of as
the most resolute in the district. One hope, however, remained: that
these guides themselves would dissuade me from my enterprise. Pierre was
encouraged to dilate upon the dangers which I should incur among the
glaciers. Through the telescope I was shown the precipices of the
Jungfrau. All the manuals of travellers of Switzerland lay upon my
tables. Everybody insisted on reading to me the most frightful
passages--those most likely, as they thought, to unnerve me. But, on the
contrary, these stirring stories did but sharpen my curiosity, did but
quicken my impatience to set out. I ceased to think of anything but the
snowy wildernesses which crown the lofty mountain summits.

"I summoned Pierre to my private apartment, and spoke to him with
firmness, so as to strengthen his resolutions. My words reassured him.
'Whatever happens,' he said, 'do you take the responsibility?'
'Assuredly,' I answered; and I gave him my hand, engaging him at the
same time to remain unmoved by any remonstrance, to encourage the guides
on their arrival, before they could be exposed to any foreign influence.
He promised, and his face brightened at the sight of my tranquil smile.
He went away to superintend the preparations for the expedition, and
arrange my masculine costume, which consisted of woollen pantaloons
striped with black and white, of a closely buttoned coat descending to
my knees, of a round felt hat like that of a mountaineer, and a pair of
large strong boots. Oh, how slow the hours seemed to me! I dreaded so
keenly any occurrence which might thwart my wishes, that I could
scarcely listen to the questions put to me respecting the necessary
arrangements. Everything wearied me, except the sight of the Jungfrau
and of Pierre, who seemed to me a friend into whose hands I had
entrusted my dearest hope.

"The first to arrive were the guides of Grindelwald. I uttered a cry of
joy when Pierre Bohren appeared, a man of low stature but thickset
limbs, and Jean Almer, who was tall and robust. Both were chamois
hunters, renowned for their intrepidity. They looked at me with curious
attentiveness. They confessed, with the frank cordiality peculiar to
these brave mountaineers, that their experience would be of no service
in the expedition I was undertaking, as they had never attempted any one
like it. They knew, however, the perils of the glaciers, for every day
they risked their lives among them. But Bohren, who had ventured the
farthest, had not passed beyond the grotto of the Eiger.

"Before coming to a definite decision, we waited the arrival of Hans
Jaun of Meyringen, who had accompanied M. Agassiz in his ascent of the
Jungfrau (in 1841). He arrived towards morning, and called upon me in
company with Ulrich Lauerer, of Lauterbrunnen. The latter was as tall as
Almer, but did not seem so ready. I learned afterwards that he was still
suffering from a fall which he had but recently met with while hunting.
Hans Jaun was the oldest of all and the least robust. His hair was
growing grey, his eyelids were rimmed with a blood- border.
However, he presided over the gathering. I had closed the door, so that
no one should disturb our solemn conference. The guides appeared
meditative, and sought to read in my eyes if my firmness were real or
assumed.

"It was decided that we should take with us four porters loaded with
provisions, ladders, ropes, and pick-axes; that towards evening I should
start for Interlachen with Pierre and Jaun, and that the other guides
should await me at Grindelwald. Then we separated