Empire Bred

She became the toast of the literary set
an accomplished horsewoman, adventurer
explorer, missionary, humanist, medical
worker, observer of nature and the human
condition, indefatigable and forever
curious of the world beyond her ken as
she went forth to acquire experience and
knowledge rather than remain the genteel
aristocrat social convention demanded of
womenfolk which left her invalided and
miserable until she broke free of the gilded
comfort that bound her and began her
worldwide travels in an era when such
ambitions were beyond the fortitude of her
countrymen, themselves known as intrepid
explorers. A fragile figure in health and
physiognomy she ventured far and wide
leaving her future to chance, spurning  all
but the freedom to travel unaccompanied
wherever curiosity took her. Take her it did
throughout North America, Australia and
New Zealand to begin her journeys in 1850.
She rode a horse across Hawaii, clambered
up volcanoes, repeated that in Colorado.
Ventured to Japan to live among and study
the Ainu, travelled among the Bedouin in
Egypt, went on to Persia, suffered typhoid
established mission hospitals, veered off
to India and Tibet to climb the Himalaya
found hospitality in Kurdistan, saw 'David'
worshippers reputedly of the lost 12 tribes
of Israel, visited a harem to conclude her
opinion of its cruelty and vicious intrigues
crossed the great Salt Desert, was subject
to searing contempt by Muslims sneering
at her presence. Oblivious to threat and
hazard Isabella Bird carried on, a woman
in charge of her very own extraordinary life
a chronicler of humanity and writer of
great distinction yet unassumingly modest
in her testament to the verities of humanity.