Os viajantes do tipo turista como hoje conhecemos, no século 19, eram ainda uma ínfima minoria e eram, na esmagadora, maioria homens. Mas a história que seleccionei para o post de hoje é sobre uma mulher. Uma mulher que, já com mais de 40 anos, deu duas voltas ao mundo! A primeira entre 1846 e 1848 - passando por Macau - e a segunda entre 1851 e 1854.
Viajava com pouco dinheiro. Muitas das vezes dividia pratos com os habitantes locais ou fazia refeições quando lhe ofereciam.; e para dormir, alojava-se em casas oferecidas pelos habitantes locais e chegou a dormir ao relento. À medida que foi sendo conhecida, as companhias de navegação e caminhos de ferro passaram a deixá-la viajar de graça.
Nascida na Áustria, Ida Laura Pfeiffer (1797-1858) foi até aos 45 anos uma dona de casa com um imenso desejo de viajar e conhecer o mundo. Um caso raro na primeira metade do século 19, mesmo na Europa.
Com os filhos já criados, vendeu a casa e o piano, e com esse dinheiro começou a viajar vindo a tornar-se uma exploradora e escritora de livros de viagens. A primeira que fez foi até à terra santa e no regresso passou para um livro as anotações do seu diário, o que lhe rendeu alguma notoriedade e dinheiro para prosseguir o sonho.
Foi a primeira mulher a ser aceite como membro honorário nas conceituadas sociedades de Geografia de Berlim e Paris e foi ainda laureada pelo rei da Prússia com uma medalha de ouro pela sua contribuição às artes e às ciências, tornando-se ainda membro das Sociedades de Zoologia de Berlim e de Amesterdão.
O registo da primeira viagem, Eine Frauenfahrt um die Welt (Viagem de uma mulher ao redor do mundo), foi publicado em Viena em 1850 em três volumes e depressa tornou-se um sucesso sendo traduzido em várias línguas. A tradução inglesa, A Woman's Journey round the World, foi publicada em Londres no mesmo ano.
"My Second Trip Around the World " foi o título do livro sobre a segunda volta ao mundo publicado em 1856.No prefácio do primeiro livro pode ler-se:
I have been called, in many of the public journals, a “professed tourist;” but I am sorry to say that I have no title to the appellation in its usual sense. On the one hand I possess too little wit and humour to render my writings amusing; and, on the other, too little knowledge to judge rightly of what I have gone through. The only gift to which I can lay claim is that of narrating in a simple manner the different scenes in which I have played a part, and the different objects I have beheld; if I ever pronounce an opinion, I do so merely on my own personal experience.
Many will perhaps believe that I undertook so long a journey from vanity. I can only say in answer to this -whoever thinks so should make such a trip himself, in order to gain the conviction, that nothing but a natural wish for travel, a boundless desire of acquiring knowledge, could ever enable a person to overcome the hardships, privations, and dangers to which I have been exposed.
In exactly the same manner as the artist feels an invincible desire to paint, and the poet to give free course to his thoughts, so was I hurried away with an unconquerable wish to see the world. In my youth I dreamed of travelling - in my old age I find amusement in reflecting on what I have beheld.
The public received very favourably my plain unvarnished account of “A Voyage to the Holy Land, and to Iceland and Scandinavia.” Emboldened by their kindness, I once more step forward with the journal of my last and most considerable voyage, and I shall feel content if the narration of my adventures procures for my readers only a portion of the immense fund of pleasure derived from the voyage by
The Authoress. Vienna, March 16, 1850.
A autora chega a Macau em Julho de 1847. Tinha 50 anos. Seguem-se alguns excertos das suas impressões sobre o território onde destacou a visita à Gruta de Camões, os hábitos da população chinesa (do jogo ao comer com pauzinhos e a paisagem urbana marcada por igrejas e fortificações.
On the 9th of July we anchored in Macao Roads. The town, which belongs to the Portuguese, and has a population of 20,000 inhabitants, is beautifully situated on the sea-side, and surrounded by pleasing hills and mountains. The most remarkable objects are the palace of the Portuguese governor, the Catholic monastery of Guia, the fortifications, and a few fine houses which lie scattered about the hills in picturesque disorder.
Besides a few European ships, there were anchored in the roads several large Chinese junks, while a great number of small boats, manned by Chinese, were rocking to and fro around us.
A year before my arrival in China, it would have seemed hardly credible to me that I should ever succeed in taking my place among the small number of Europeans who are acquainted with that remarkable country, not from books alone, but from actual observation; I never believed that I should really behold the Chinese, with their shaven heads, long tails, and small, ugly, narrow eyes, the exact counterparts of the representations of them which we have in Europe.
We had hardly anchored, before a number of Chinese clambered up on deck, while others remained in their boats, offering for sale a variety of beautifully made articles, with fruit and cakes, laid out in great order, so as to form in a few seconds a regular market round the vessel. Some of them began praising their wares in broken English; but on the whole, they did not drive a very flourishing business, as the crew merely bought a few cigars, and a little fruit.
Captain Jurianse hired a boat, and we immediately went on shore, where each person on landing had to pay half a Spanish dollar (2s.) to the mandarin: I subsequently heard that this imposition was shortly afterwards abolished.
We proceeded to the house of one of the Portuguese merchants established there, passing through a large portion of the town on our way thither. Europeans, both men and women, can circulate freely, without being exposed to a shower of stones, as is frequently the case in other Chinese towns. The streets, which are exclusively inhabited by Chinese, presented a very bustling aspect. The men were in many cases seated out of doors in groups, playing at dominoes, while locksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, and many others were either working, talking, playing, or dining in the numerous booths. I observed but few women, and these were of the lower classes.
Nothing surprised and amused me more than the manner in which the Chinese eat; they have two little sticks, with which they very skilfully convey their victuals into their mouths. This process, however, cannot be so successfully practised with rice, because it does not hold together; they therefore hold the plate containing it close to their mouths, and push it in by the aid of the sticks, generally letting a portion of it fall back again, in no very cleanly fashion, into the plate. For liquids they use round spoons of porcelain.
The style in which the houses are built, did not strike me as very remarkable; the front generally looks out upon the courtyard or garden.
Among other objects which I visited was the grotto, in which the celebrated Portuguese poet, Camoens, is said to have composed the Lusiade. He had been banished, A.D. 1556, to Macao, on account of a satirical poem he had written, Disperates no India, and remained in banishment several years before receiving a pardon. The grotto is charmingly situated upon an eminence not far from the town.
As there was no business to be done, the captain resolved to put to sea again the next morning, and offered in the most friendly manner to take me as his guest to Hong-Kong, as I had only agreed for a passage as far as Macao. I accepted his invitation with the greater pleasure, as I had not a single letter to any one in Macao; besides which, it is very seldom that there is an opportunity of proceeding to Hong-Kong.
On account of the shallowness of the water, our ship was hove to at rather a long distance from the shore, where it was exposed to an attack from the pirates, who are here very daring and numerous. In consequence of this, every precaution was taken, and the watch doubled for the night.
As late as the year 1842 these pirates attacked a brig that was lying at anchor in the Macao Roads, murdering the crew and plundering the vessel. The captain had remained on shore, and the sailors had carelessly given themselves up to sleep, leaving only one man to keep watch. In the middle of the night a schampan - which is the name given to a vessel smaller than a junk - came alongside the brig. One of the rowers then came on board, pretending he had a letter from the captain; and as the sailor went near the lantern to read the letter, he received from the pirate a blow upon his head which laid him senseless on the deck; the rest of those in the boat, who had hitherto remained concealed, now scaled the side of the brig, and quickly overpowered the slumbering crew.
In our case, however, the night passed without any incident worth noting; and on the morning of the 10th of July, having first taken on board a pilot, we proceeded to Hong-Kong, a distance of sixty nautical miles. The voyage proved highly interesting, on account of the varied succession of bays, creeks, and groups of islands which we had to pass.
The English obtained Hong-Kong from the Chinese at the conclusion of the war in 1842, and founded the port of Victoria, which contains at present a large number of palace-like houses built of stone.
The Europeans who have settled here, and who are not more than two or three hundred in number, are far from being contented, however, as trade is not half as good as they at first expected it would be. Every merchant is presented by the English government with a plot of ground, on condition of his building on it. Many of them erected, as I before mentioned, splendid edifices, which they would now be glad to sell for half the cost price, or even very frequently to give the ground and foundations, without asking the smallest sum in return.
I resolved to stop only a few days in Victoria, as it was my wish to arrive at Canton as soon as possible. (...)
A tradução do alemão tem algumas variantes consoante o país onde era impresso o livro. Veja-se o caso desta edição para os EUA em 1852, "A Lady's Voyage Round the World: A Selected Translation from the German of Ida Pfeiffer":
A year ago I should have little thought there was any chance of my becoming acquainted with this remarkable country not merely from books but in my proper person that the shaven heads and long tails and cunning little eyes as we see them in pictures and on tea chests would have presented themselves in living forms before me.
But scarcely was our anchor dropped before several Chinese already stood upon our deck while numbers of others appeared in boats surrounding us and displaying in pretty order fruits pastry and various kinds of beautiful works so that the space round the ship looked like a fair.
Some among them lauded in broken English the treasures they had brought but after all they got but little for their trouble for our crew bought only fruit and cigars.
Captain Jurianse now hired a boat and we rowed ashore but on landing the first thing we had to do was to pay half a Spanish dollar each to a mandarin. I heard that this abuse was shortly after abolished.
We had to go to one of the Portuguese houses of business and in doing so passed through a great part of the town for Europeans women as well as men can now go about freely here without as in other Chinese towns being exposed to the danger of being stoned.
In those streets which are exclusively inhabited by Chinese things looked very lively and bustling. The men were sitting in groups playing dominoes in the streets and in the shops of the locksmiths tailors shoemakers & c there was working gossiping gambling and dancing going on at once. I was greatly amused at the Chinese mode of eating with two little sticks which they manage with great adroitness it is only in eating rice that they seem to labor under difficulties as it will not hold together.
The plan is therefore to bring the vessel containing it as near as possible to the mouth which is held in readiness wide open and then dexterously shove a heap into the expectant aperture In performing this operation it happens of course often that a portion falls back again into the dish but that is of no consequence with fluid food they make use of China spoons.
My stay at Macao proved to be an exceedingly short one for as our captain found there was no chance of doing any business there he resolved to go to sea the next day but he kindly offered to take me with him as a guest. His invitation was so much the more welcome to me as I had not a single letter of introduction to Macao and the opportunities of going to Hong Kong are not at all frequent.
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