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.