It is impossible not to wonder at the
marvellous physical capability of this adventurous woman, no less than at
her courage, her resolution, and her perseverance. How many of her sex
could bear for a week the fatigue and exposure to which she subjected
herself year after year?
The next morning she accomplished the return journey in safety.
* * * * *
[Hong-Kong: page65.jpg]
On the 17th of May she left Tahiti, the Dutch vessel in which she had
embarked being bound via the Philippines. They passed this rich and
radiant group of islands on the 1st of July, and the next day entered the
dangerous China Sea. A few days afterwards they reached Hong-Kong, which
has been an English settlement since 1842. Here Madame Pfeiffer made no
long stay, for she desired to see China and the Chinese with as little
intermixture of the European element as possible. So she ascended the
Pearl river, the banks of which are covered with immense plantations of
rice, and studded with quaint little country-houses, of the genuine
Chinese pattern, with sloping, pointed roofs, and mosaics of variously
coloured tiles, to Canton, one of the great commercial centres of the
Flowery Land. As she approached she surveyed with wonder the animated
scene before her. The river was crowded with ships and inhabited boats.
Junks there were, almost as large as the old Spanish galleons, with poops
impending far over the water, and covered in with a roof, like a house.
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