Ida Laura Pfeiffer (nee Reyer, 1797-1858) was an Austrian explorer, travel writer, and ethnographer. She was one of the first female travellers, whose bestselling journals were translated into 7 languages. She journeyed an estimated 32, 000 kilometers by land and 240, 000 by sea through Southeast Asia, the Americas, Middle East, and Africa, including two trips around the world from 1846-55. She was a member of geographical societies of both Berlin and Paris, but was denied membership by the Royal Geographical Society in London as it forbade the election of women before 1913. She died in 1858, having contracted a recurring fever in Mauritius, and this journal of her final voyage was published posthumously in 1861, edited and with a biographical memoir by her son, Oscar. Includes a portrait of Ida Pfeiffer.