intention
of crossing the Andes, and pushing eastward, through the interior of
South America, to the Brazilian coast. A revolution in Peru, however,
compelled her to change her course, and she returned to Ecuador, which
served as a starting-point for her ascent of the Cordilleras. After
having the good fortune to witness an eruption of Cotopaxi, she retraced
her steps to the west. In the neighbourhood of Guayaquil she had two
very narrow escapes: one, by a fall from her mule; and next, by an
immersion in the River Guaya, which teems with alligators. Meeting with
neither courtesy nor help from the Spanish Americans--a superstitious,
ignorant, and degraded race--she gladly set sail for Panama.

At the end of May she crossed the Isthmus, and sailed to New Orleans.
Thence she ascended the Mississippi to Napoleon, and the Arkansas to Fort
Smith. After suffering from a severe attack of fever, she made her way
to St. Louis, and then directed her steps northward to St. Paul, the
Falls of St. Antony, Chicago, and thence to the great Lakes and "mighty
Niagara." After an excursion into Canada, she visited New York, Boston,
and other great cities, crossed the Atlantic, and arrived in England on
the 21st of November 1854. Two years later she published a narrative of
her adventures, entitled "My Second Journey Round the World."

Madame Pfeiffer's last voyage was to Madagascar, and will be found
described in the closing chapter of this little volume. In Madagascar
she contracted a dangerous illness, from which she temporarily recovered;
but on her return to Europe it was evident that her constitution had
received a severe blow. She gradually grew weaker. Her disease proved
to be cancer of the liver, and the physicians pronounced it incurable.
After lingering a few weeks in much pain, she passed away on the night of
the 27th of October 1858, in the sixty-third year of her age.

* * * * *

This remarkable woman is described as of short stature, thin, and
slightly bent. Her movements were deliberate and measured. She was well-
knit and of considerable physical energy, and her career proves her to
have been possessed of no ordinary powers of endurance. The reader might
probably suppose that she was what is commonly known as a strong-minded
woman. The epithet would suit her if seriously applied, for she had
undoubtedly a clear, strong intellect, a cool judgment, and a resolute
purpose; but it would be thoroughly inapplica