PFEIFFER  .

IDA LAURA (1797—1858), Austrian traveller, daughter of a merchant named Reyer, was born at Vienna on the 14th of October 1797 . In 182o she married Dr Pfeiffer, a lawyer of Lemberg, who subsequently incurred official persecution and was reduced to poverty . In her later life Mme Pfeiffer devoted her limited means to travel . In 1842 she visited Palestine and Egypt, and published an account of her journey in Reise einer Wienerin in das Heilige Land (Vienna, 1843) . In 1845 she set out to Scandinavia and Iceland, describing her tour in two volumes, Reise nach dem skandinavischen Norden and der Insel Island (Pest, 1846) . In 1846 she started on a journey round the world, visiting Brazil, Chile and other countries of South America, Tahiti, China, India, Persia, Asia Minor and Greece, and reaching home in 1848 . The results were published in Eine Frauenfahrt urn die Well (Vienna, 185o) . In 1851 she went to England and thence to South Africa, intending to penetrate into the interior; this proved impracticable, but she proceeded to the Malay Archipelago, spending eighteen months in the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas . After a visit to Australia, Madame Pfeiffer proceeded to California, Oregon, Peru, Ecuador, New Granada, the Missiones Territory, and north again to the Great Lakes, reaching home in 1854 . Her narrative, Heine zweile Weltreise, was published at Vienna in 1856 . In May of the same year she set out to explore Madagascar, where at first shewas cordially received by the queen .

But she unwittingly allowed herself to be involved in a

plot to overthrow the government, and was expelled the country . She died at Vienna on the 27th of October 1858 . The Reise nach Madagascar was issued in 1861 (Vienna), with a biography by her son .