Constance Frederica "Eka" Gordon Cumming was one of the most celebrated lady travelers in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Essentially a tourist rather than an explorer, she was an astute observer in part because of her knowledge of botany and ethnology. Her social position piqued interest in her wanderings around the globe, while the warmth and human understanding suffusing her descriptions of little-known cultures made her travel books, according to W. C. Blackie in a July 1896 article in Blackwood's, "the most popular of our lady travellers." She produced hundreds of sketches and watercolor paintings, which illustrate her books and also were shown in several exhibitions. Late in life she became an advocate for missionary work among the blind in China, charity work she took up after spending six months in that country.

Cumming was born at Altyre, Morayshire, the twelfth child of Sir William Gordon Cumming...