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European women, volunteered to serve with Garibaldi and was under severe fire in
the battle of Mentana.6
The four years intervening between 1863 and 1867 seem to have been spent in
European travel, though the records are barren of accurate detail. But the three
from 1867 to 1870 were passed in the East,7 and were quite fruitful and
eventful.
In 1870 she returned from the Orient, coming through the newly opened Suez
Canal, spent a short time in Piraeus, and from there took passage for Spezzia on
board a Greek vessel. On this voyage she was one of the very few saved from
death in a terrible catastrophe, the vessel being blown to bits by an explosion
of gunpowder and fireworks in the cargo. Rescued with only the clothes they
wore, the survivors were looked after by the Greek government, which forwarded
them to various destinations. Madame Blavatsky went to Alexandria and to Cairo,
tarrying at the latter place until money reached her from Russia.
While awaiting the arrival of funds, the energetic woman determined to found a
Société Spirite, for the investigation of mediums and manifestations according
to the theories and philosophy of Allen Kardec. The latter was an outstanding
advocate of Spiritualistic philosophy on the Continent. He had correlated the
commonly reported spiritistic exploits to a more profound and involved theory of
cosmic evolution and a higher spirituality in man. His work, Life and Destiny,
written under the pseudonym of Leon Denis, unfolded a comprehensive system of
spiritual truth identical in its main features with Theosophy itself. His
interests were not primarily in spiritistic phenomena for themselves, but for
what they revealed of the inner spiritual capacities and potentialities of our
evolving Psyche.
It required but a few weeks to disgust Madame Blavatsky with her fruitless
undertaking. Some French female spiritists, whom she had drafted for service as
mediums, in lack of better, proved to be adventuresses following in the wake of
M. de Lesseps' army of engineers and workmen, and they concluded by stealing the
Society's funds. She wrote home:
"To wind up the comedy with a drama, I got nearly shot by a madman-a Greek, who
had been present at the only two public séances we held, and got possessed I
suppose, by some vile spook."8
 32
She terminated the affairs of her Société and went to Bulak, where she renewed
her previous acquaintance with the old Copt. His unconcealed interest in his
visitor aroused some slanderous talk about her. Disgusted with the growing
gossip, she went home by way of Palestine, making a side voyage to Palmyra and
other ruins, and meeting there some Russian friends. At the end of 1872 she
returned without warning to her family, then at Odessa.
In 1873 she again abandoned her home, and Paris was her first objective. She
stayed there with a cousin, Nicholas Hahn, for two months. While in Paris she
was directed by her "spiritual overseers" to visit the United States, "where she
would meet a man by the name of Olcott," with whom she was to undertake an
important enterprise. Obedient to her orders she arrived at New York on July
7th, 1873.9 She was for a time practically without funds; actually, as Col.
Olcott avers, "in the most dismal want, having . . . to boil her coffee-dregs
over and over again for lack of pence for buying a fresh supply; and to keep off
starvation, at last had to work with her needle for a maker of cravats."10
During this interval she was lodged in a wretched tenement house in the East
Side, and made cravats for a kindly old Jew, whose help at this time she never
forgot.11 In her squalid quarters she was sought out by a veteran journalist,
Miss Anna Ballard, in search of copy for a Russian story. She received, in late
October, a legacy from the estate of her father, who had died early in that
month. A draft of one thousand rubles was first sent her, and later the entire
sum bequeathed to her. Then in affluence she moved to better quarters, first to
Union Square, then to East 16th Street, then to Irving Place. But her money did
not abide in her keeping long. In regard to the sources of her income after her
patrimony had been flung generously to the winds, we are told, upon Col.
Olcott's pledged honor, that both his and her wants, after the organization of
the Theosophical Society, were frequently provided for by the occult
ministrations of the Masters. He claims that during the many years of their
joint campaigns for Theosophy, especially in India, the treasure-chest at
headquarters, after having been depleted, would be found supplied with funds
from unknown sources. Shopping one day in New York with Colonel, she made
purchases to the amount of about fifty dollars. He paid the bills. On returning
home she thrust some banknotes into his hand, saying: "There are your fifty [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]