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ADOTTA UNA NAVE
CLASSE 2^ B
• La CAROLINA di MSC 2012
sulla rotta che fu del brigantino
HMS BEAGLE di Darwin 1825
The HMS Beagle
The HMS Beagle was a 10-gun two-masted brig-sloop belonging to
the Royal Navy, launched in 1820. It was part of the celebration of
the coronation of King George IV of England in July, 1820,
becoming the first ship to sail under the new London Bridge.
It was not used again until 1826. In 1825 four guns were removed
and a mizzen mast added, making it a 3-masted 6-gun bark.
The
First
Voyage
of the
HMS
Beagle
On 22 May 1826 the HMS Beagle set sail under Captain Pringle
Stokes as part of a survey expedition on the east coast of South
America led by Captain Philip Parker King on the much larger
HMS Adventure. The focus of the survey was Patagonia and Tierra
del Fuego. When Captain Stokes became depressed and shot
himself in August 1828, Rear Admiral Richard Otway on the HMS
Ganges placed his assistant, 23-year-old Robert FitzRoy, in charge
of the Beagle.
The Beagle under Captain FitzRoy
Captain FitzRoy was in charge of the rest of the first
voyage of the Beagle, from December 15, 1828 until its
return to England on October 14, 1830.
One night a boat used by some crew members who went
ashore was stolen by some of the native Fuegians.
In the process of unsuccessfully trying to recover the
boat, FitzRoy took four hostages, three males and one
young female, whom he eventually decided to take back
to England and transform into civilized Christians.
Tierra del Fuego
Archipelago at the southern tip of South America
Fuegians
Fuegians drawn on voyage of the Beagle.
Characteristics of the Fuegians
Fuegians were the indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego. There were
several different tribes speaking several different languages, some of
them isolates unrelated to any other languages.
Fuegians were nomadic hunter-gatherers who ate fish, seals, sea birds,
even whales at times. They did not have permanent shelters; they
carried their belongings with them, making temporary huts out of
stakes, dry sticks, and leather. They traveled on sea by canoes.
They were normally naked during warm weather and wore skins when
it was colder.
The Fuegians disappeared as European colonists brought them new
diseases, destroyed their food supplies of seals and whales, and hunted
them into extinction in the late 19th century.
The last full-blooded native Fuegian died in 1999.
Second Voyage of the HMS Beagle
Departure: 27 December 1831
Return: 2 October 1836, nearly five years later
Purposes:
By the Admiralty, to continue making surveys,
mainly of South America – this part was successful.
By FitzRoy, to return the Fuegians, whose
experience in England had not worked out well, to their
native lands with a missionary (Richard Matthews) who
would begin the conversion of the natives – this part was
wildly unsuccessful.
How Charles Darwin came to be on the HMS Beagle
Robert FitzRoy worried about the fact that the first captain
of the HMS Beagle had committed suicide, that his halfuncle, Viscount Castlereagh, had committed suicide, and he
himself sometimes felt depressed.
So he decided he wanted a gentleman naturalist aboard as a
companion, one who paid his own way (customary in those
days).
First he approached a friend, Harry Chester, who turned
him down.
Then he asked his superior, Captain Francis Beaufort, for
help finding a companion.
Darwin’s Geology Trip with Adam Sedgwick
In July 1831, after graduating from Cambridge University,
Darwin – still not eager to start a working career as a
clergyman – went with Adam Sedgwick, geology professor
at Cambridge, on a geology tour of North Wales. Darwin
had been turned off on geology by Jameson’s lectures at
Edinburgh and he had not studied it at Cambridge, despite
Sedgwick’s good reputation as a teacher. But in 1831 he
had again become interested in geology, and Henslow had
urged him to go with Sedgwick. Darwin saw how carefully
Sedgwick took notes on this trip – probably a good lesson
for his Beagle voyage. Darwin cut the tour short to make it
back for the start of hunting season on September 1.
Darwin gets his chance to voyage on the HMS Beagle
Beaufort asked George Peacock at the University of Cambridge to
suggest a naturalist, and Peacock asked two established naturalists,
the clergymen Leonard Jenyns and Professor John Stevens Henslow,
botanist at Cambridge.
Both Jenyns and Henslow turned down the offer, but both suggested
the 22-year-old Charles Darwin as a good choice.
“On returning home from my short geological tour in North Wales, I
found a letter from Henslow, informing me that Captain Fitz-Roy
was willing to give up part of his own cabin to any young man who
would volunteer to go with him without pay as naturalist to the
Voyage of the ‘Beagle.’ …I was instantly eager to accept the offer,
but my father strongly objected, adding the words, fortunate for me,
‘If you can find any man of common sense who advises you to go I
will give my consent.’ So I wrote that evening and refused the offer.”
– Autobiography
A second opinion …
“On the next morning I went to Maer to be ready for
September 1st [start of the shooting season], and, whilst out
shooting, my uncle [Josiah Wedgwood, later Darwin’s
father-in-law] sent for me, offering to drive me over to
Shrewsbury and talk with my father, as my uncle thought it
would be wise in me to accept the offer. My father always
maintained that he was one of the most sensible men in the
world, and he at once consented in the kindest manner. I
had been rather extravagant at Cambridge, and to console
my father, said, ‘that I should be deuced clever to spend
more than my allowance whilst on board the Beagle;’ but he
answered with a smile, ‘But they tell me you are very
clever.’ ” – Autobiography
Almost defeated by a nose …
“Next day I started for Cambridge to see Henslow, and
thence to London to see Fitz-Roy, and all was soon
arranged. Afterwards, on becoming very intimate with
Fitz-Roy, I heard that I had run a very narrow risk of being
rejected, on account of the shape of my nose! He was an
ardent disciple of Lavater, and was convinced that he
could judge of a man's character by the outline of his
features; and he doubted whether any one with my nose
could possess sufficient energy and determination for the
voyage. But I think he was afterwards well satisfied that
my nose had spoken falsely.” – Autobiography
Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741 – 1801) was a Swiss clergyman and
physiognomist.
The importance of Darwin’s voyage
“The voyage of the ‘Beagle’ has been by far the most
important event in my life, and has determined my
whole career; yet it depended on so small a
circumstance as my uncle offering to drive me thirty
miles to Shrewsbury, which few uncles would have
done, and on such a trifle as the shape of my nose. I
have always felt that I owe to the voyage the first real
training or education of my mind; I was led to attend
closely to several branches of natural history, and thus
my powers of observation were improved, though they
were always fairly developed.”
– Autobiography
Importance of Darwin’s voyage on the HMS Beagle
Darwin visited Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest before logging
began, and discovered the incredible diversity of its flora
and fauna, which differed greatly from Great Britain’s.
In Argentina he found fossils of extinct mammals and
discovered that they were different from living species but
often closely resembled them.
He discovered that animals in different parts of South
America resembled each other, but not completely – they
exhibited distinct differences.
In the Galapágos Islands he discovered that animals like
birds and turtles differed slightly from one island to another.
Darwin’s Books
Since the ship was going to be crowded, Darwin could not bring many
books along. They included John Milton’s Paradise Lost and
Alexander von Humboldt’s Personal Narrative of a Journey to the
Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, or at least part of it, the
latter a gift from Henslow.
In addition, the first volume of Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology
appeared in 1830, the year before the voyage of the HMS Beagle began,
and Captain FitzRoy bought a copy for Darwin and gave it to him.
These three books were apparently well-read by Darwin. Whenever he
took an excursion inland in South America, Darwin carried Paradise
Lost along. He presumably read Humboldt carefully, since it dealt with
travels in the Western Hemisphere from 1799 to 1804. Lyell’s book
also taught him a lot of new geology that Darwin tried – successfully –
to use to explain the geological features he saw on the voyage.
The Second Voyage of the HMS Beagle, 1831 – 1836
Bible reading on the HMS Beagle (by Augustus Earle);
there were 74 on board.
1831, December 27 – The H.M.S. Beagle departs
1832, January 16 – The Beagle reaches the Cape Verde Islands.
1832, February – 1834, May – The Beagle is on the east coast of
South America.
1834, June – 1835, September – The Beagle is on the west coast
of South America.
1835, September 15 – October 20 – At the Galapagos Islands.
1835, November 15 – 26 – The Beagle is at Tahiti.
1835, December 21 – 1836, March 14 – The Beagle is in New
Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania.
1836, March to October – The Beagle is in the Indian Ocean, then
the Cape of Good Hope, the South Atlantic Ocean, Bahia (Brazil),
the Azores, and back in Plymouth on October 2, 1836.
Departure of the HMS Beagle
Originally, the voyage was planned to last two years (fall
1831 to fall 1833); actually, it lasted nearly five years (late
December 1831 to early October 1836).
This voyage was initially intended for the HMS
Chanticleer, but it was in bad shape, and the HMS Beagle
was used instead, completely refurbished in 1831, mostly
at FitzRoy’s expense.
Planned departure date was October 24, 1831, but this was
delayed until December 10. The ship immediately
encountered such bad weather that it returned and did not
make its real departure until December 27, from
Plymouth, England.
December 1831 to
March 1832:
England to Brazil
Darwin immediately became very
seasick, and both he and FitzRoy
thought it likely that he would want
to leave the ship as soon as possible.
The first stop was supposed to be at
Madeira, according to FitzRoy’s
orders, but it was skipped because
of rough seas. The next stop was
supposed to be Tenerife, in the
Canary Islands, and that would have
made a good place for Darwin to
disembark.
1832, January 6 – The Beagle arrived at Tenerife, but the
authorities would not allow the English to come ashore for fear they
might bring cholera, which was a problem in several British cities at
the time.
On the way to the Cape Verde Islands, the seas were much better and
Darwin’s seasickness temporarily disappeared, so he soldiered on,
staying on the ship.
1832, January 16 – The Beagle arrives at the Cape Verde Islands
and Darwin went ashore and began exploring its zoology, botany, and
geology. “I had brought with me the first volume of Lyell's
‘Principles of Geology' which I studied attentively; and the book was
of the highest service to me in many ways. The very first place which
I examined, namely St. Jago in the Cape de Verde islands, showed me
clearly the wonderful superiority of Lyell's manner of treating
geology, compared with that of any other author, whose works I had
with me or ever afterwards read.” – Autobiography
St. Paul’s Rocks
On February 16 the ship reached the island of St. Paul’s, a cluster of
rocks only ¾ of a mile in circumference and only 50 feet above sea
level at its highest point.
“We found on St. Paul’s only two kinds of birds – the booby and the
noddy. The former is a species of gannet, and the latter a tern. Both
are of a tame and stupid disposition, and are so unaccustomed to
visitors that I could have killed any number of them with my
geological hammer. The booby lays her eggs on the bare rock, but
the tern makes a very simple nest with seaweed. By the side of many
of these nests a small flying fish was placed, which, I suppose, had
been brought by the male bird for its partner. … Not a single plant,
not even a lichen, grows on this islet; yet it is inhabited by several
insects and spiders.”
Darwin also found a fly, a tick, a small brown moth, a beetle, and a
woodlouse.
On February 29, 1832, the HMS Beagle reached the coast of
South America, arriving at Bahia, Brazil. The ship remained on
the east coast over two years, until May 1834.
“The day has passed delightfully. Delight itself, however, is a
weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist who, for the
first time, has wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest. The
elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the parasitical plants, the
beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the foliage, but above
all the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled me with
admiration. A most paradoxical mixture of sound and silence
pervades the shady parts of the wood. The noise from the
insects is so loud, that it may be heard even in a vessel anchored
several hundred yards from the shore; yet within the recesses of
the forest a universal silence appears to reign. To a person fond
of natural history, such a day as this brings with it a deeper
pleasure than he can ever hope to experience again.”
Darwin, with strong anti-slavery sentiments like all the
Darwins and Wedgwoods, was aghast at seeing the
treatment of slaves in Brazil, but FitzRoy felt differently.
“He defended and praised slavery, which I abominated,
and told me that he had just visited a great slave-owner,
who had called up many of his slaves and asked them
whether they were happy, and whether they wished to be
free, and all answered ‘No.’ I then asked him, perhaps
with a sneer, whether he thought that the answer of
slaves in the presence of their master was worth
anything? This made him excessively angry, and he said
that as I doubted his word we could not live any longer
together. …
“I thought that I should have been compelled to leave the
ship; but as soon as the news spread, which it did quickly,
as the captain sent for the first lieutenant to assuage his
anger by abusing me, I was deeply gratified by receiving
an invitation from all the gun-room officers to mess with
them. But after a few hours Fitz-Roy showed his usual
magnanimity by sending an officer to me with an apology
and a request that I would continue to live with him.”
Darwin and FitzRoy maintained cordial but somewhat
strained relations the rest of their lives.
April – July
1832: Rio
de Janeiro
and
environs,
Brazil.
Note: this
was fall and
winter.
Darwin went ashore and traveled considerably,
visiting tropical rain forests, as well as some
Brazilian estates, and collecting many insects.
July 1832: Uruguay
Darwin spent time ashore visiting towns and countryside,
studying the zoology, and procuring many kinds of fresh meat
for the ship (deer, ostriches, agouti (a rodent), and armadillos.
While FitzRoy explored the coast for several months,
Darwin collected, labeled, and prepared for shipment (to
Henslow) many fossils and specimens from the area,
occasionally rejoining the ship as it moved to a different
area. During this time Darwin’s health appeared to be
excellent.
Darwin was startled by the fact that the fossil remains
demonstrated of South America “wide and repeated
exterminations of its inhabitants.” He wondered why these
occurred, rejecting the explanation of catastrophism
because the geology seemed to indicate only slow and
gradual changes such as uniformitarian geologists believed
in.
December 16, 1832
On this day Darwin for the first time saw Tierra de Fuegians
in their native land. He referred to them as “Indians.”
While he thought them capable of becoming civilized (he
was thinking of the ones FitzRoy had brought back to
England, who had even learned to speak English), he was
astonished at their wild and savage state of life, so different
from that of Englishmen.
In January 1833 the ship arrived at the district Jemmy
Button came from, and he was reunited with his mother ad
brothers. The Fuegians and the missionary Richard
Matthews were left ashore, but all their belongings were
quickly plundered, and Matthews stayed only nine days.
Falkland Islands
On March 15, 1833 the Beagle visited the Falkland Islands off the
southern coast of Argentina; they had, two months earlier, been
claimed as British by two naval vessels sent there.
“After the possession of these miserable islands had been contested
by France, Spain, and England, they were left uninhabited. The
government of Buenos Aires then sold them to a private individual,
but likewise used them, as old Spain had done before, for a penal
settlement. England claimed her right and seized them. The
Englishman who was left in charge of the flag was consequently
murdered. A British officer was next sent, unsupported by any
power: and when we arrived, we found him in charge of a
population, of which rather more than half were runaway rebels
and murderers.” – Darwin in Voyage of the Beagle.
May 1, 1833
The Beagle returned to Montevideo, Uruguay, dropping
Darwin off at Maldonado. He took a 12-day trip to the
interior with two gauchos (cowboys) and a team of
horses. Upon returning to Montevideo he wrote to his
sister asking if his father could provide him with £60 a
year to hire a manservant, Syms Covington, who was on
the Beagle doing odd jobs.
During the rest of the year Darwin went on other
expeditions from Uruguay and Argentina, finding some
large fossils he couldn’t identify.
Extermination of Indians
In his travels with the Spanish in South America, Darwin
witnessed many battles with Indians, whom the Spanish
generally killed (except for children, whom they enslaved).
“Every one here is fully convinced that this is the most
just war, because it is against barbarians. Who would
believe in this age that such atrocities could be committed in a
Christian civilized country?”
Early 1834
During the first part of 1834 the Beagle surveyed Tierra del
Fuego and paid another visit to the Falkland Islands.
In April and May Darwin and FitzRoy took a trip inland along
the River Santa Cruz.
June 1834 through September 1835
During these 15 months the HMS Beagle was on the west
coast of South America (mostly Chile).
On 20 February 1835, about 11:30 in the morning local
time, there was a great earthquake in Chile which Darwin
experienced near the town of Valdivia, but which affected
many towns and villages along the coast.
“February 20th. – This day has been memorable in the
annals of Valdivia, for the most severe earthquake
experienced by the oldest inhabitant. I happened to be on
shore, and was lying down in the wood to rest myself. It
came on suddenly, and lasted two minutes, but the time
appeared much longer. The rocking of the ground was very
sensible. The undulations appeared to my companion and
myself to come from due east, whilst others thought they
proceeded from south-west: this shows how difficult it
sometimes is to perceive the directions of the vibrations.
There was no difficulty in standing upright, but the motion
made me almost giddy: it was something like the movement
of a vessel in a little cross-ripple, or still more like that felt
by a person skating over thin ice, which bends under the
weight of his body.” – Voyage of the Beagle, Chapter XIV.
“A bad earthquake at once destroys our oldest
associations: the earth, the very emblem of solidity, has
moved beneath our feet like a thin crust over a fluid; – one
second of time has created in the mind a strange idea of
insecurity, which hours of reflection would not have
produced. In the forest, as a breeze moved the trees, I felt
only the earth tremble, but saw no other effect. Captain
Fitz Roy and some officers were at the town during the
shock, and there the scene was more striking; for although
the houses, from being built of wood, did not fall, they
were violently shaken, and the boards creaked and rattled
together. The people rushed out of doors in the greatest
alarm. …
“It is these accompaniments that create that perfect horror
of earthquakes, experienced by all who have thus seen, as
well as felt, their effects. Within the forest it was a deeply
interesting, but by no means an awe-exciting phenomenon.
The tides were very curiously affected. The great shock took
place at the time of low water; and an old woman who was
on the beach told me that the water flowed very quickly, but
not in great waves, to high- water mark, and then as quickly
returned to its proper level; this was also evident by the line
of wet sand. The same kind of quick but quiet movement in
the tide happened a few years since at Chiloe, during a
slight earthquake, and created much causeless alarm. In the
course of the evening there were many weaker shocks, which
seemed to produce in the harbour the most complicated
currents, and some of great strength.”
“The next day I landed at Talcahuano, and afterwards rode to
Concepcion. Both towns presented the most awful yet interesting
spectacle I ever beheld. To a person who had formerly known them, it
possibly might have been still more impressive; for the ruins were so
mingled together, and the whole scene possessed so little the air of a
habitable place, that it was scarcely possible to imagine its former
condition. The earthquake commenced at half-past eleven o'clock in
the forenoon. If it had happened in the middle of the night, the greater
number of the inhabitants (which in this one province must amount to
many thousands) must have perished, instead of less than a hundred:
as it was, the invariable practice of running out of doors at the first
trembling of the ground, alone saved them. In Concepcion each
house, or row of houses, stood by itself, a heap or line of ruins; but in
Talcahuano, owing to the great wave, little more than one layer of
bricks, tiles, and timber with here and there part of a wall left
standing, could be distinguished. From this circumstance Concepcion,
although not so completely desolated, was a more terrible, and if I
may so call it, picturesque sight.”
Ruins at Conception, Chile, after the earthquake of 20 February
1835; drawing by J. C. Wickham, first lieutenant.
March 14 – April 10, 1835
In the fall of 1835, starting from Santiago, Chile, Darwin
took a trip to the Andes, one he had been preparing for a
while. He had a Spanish-speaking guide and many mules
carrying provisions for the trip.
Darwin is elated to find evidence that the Andes had risen
from the sea: fossil seashells at 14,000 feet and petrified
trees at 7,000 feet. He realizes that the animals on the
western side are different from those on the eastern side,
and that the mountains have acted as a barrier to the
crossing of animals. He brought back many specimens to
have “plenty of proof” of his discoveries.
The Chileans were puzzled by the HMS Beagle and by Darwin’s
expeditions to investigate the geology. Many are convinced that
the Beagle, which pops in and out of different harbors, is engaged
in smuggling, and that Darwin is a mining prospector. Darwin
manages to put most of them off by telling them that he is just
interested in earthquakes, volcanoes, and hot springs, and other
geological features, and asks them, aren’t they also curious about
the same things?
On July 19, 1835, the Beagle arrives at Lima, Peru. Darwin is
shocked at the decay of the city and its buildings, even its churches,
but is struck by the beauty of the Spanish women.
On September 7, 1835, the Beagle leaves for the Galapagos
Archipelago, first sighting one of the islands on September 15 and
arriving the next day at Hood Island.
Visit to
the
Galapagos
Islands
The HMS
Beagle
stayed at the
Galapagos
Islands from
September
15 through
October 20,
1835.
At the Galapagos Islands
The visit to the Galapagos Islands was the most important part of
the whole voyage to Darwin, though the full significance of the
things he saw and collected were not clear to him until after he
had returned to England.
He collected some mockingbirds, labeling them by the island
where he had collected them. He realized that they were different
from but very similar to those on the mainland of South America.
He later learned from ornithologist John Gould that they
constituted three different species, with only one species
occurring on a given island.
He also collected a large number of smaller birds, unfortunately
not labeled according to island, which he did not realize were all
species of finches, until John Gould told him so.
These are four species of finches Darwin found on the
Galapagos Islands. He did not realize they were all finches,
but the English ornithologist John Gould told him they
were; Gould identified a total of 13 different species among
Darwin’s specimens.
The Galapagos finches have been extensively studied since
Darwin’s time, and their evolution (back and forth)
recorded.
One day, Darwin reported, “The day was glowing hot,
and the scrambling over the rough surface and through
the intricate thickets, was very fatiguing; but I was well
repaid by the strange Cyclopean scene. As I was walking
along I met two large tortoises, each of which must have
weighed at least two hundred pounds: one was eating a
piece of cactus, and as I approached, it stared at me and
slowly walked away; the other gave a deep hiss, and drew
in its head. These huge reptiles, surrounded by the black
lava, the leafless shrubs, and large cacti, seemed to my
fancy like some antediluvian animals. The few dullcoloured birds cared no more for me than they did for the
great tortoises.” – Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle
The Galapagos Giant Tortoises
“Galapagos” is Spanish for saddle/tortoise. Although all Galapagos
tortoises looked pretty much alike to Darwin, Nicholas Dawson, the
Englishman in charge of Ecuador’s penal colony on Charles Island,
told Darwin that he could tell which island any particular tortoise
came from, because there were slight differences from one island to
the next. Again, the significance of this was not evident to Darwin
until after he had returned to England and thought about it.
“[T]he most remarkable feature in the natural history of this
archipelago … is, that the different islands to a considerable extent
are inhabited by a different set of beings. My attention was first
called to this fact by the Vice-Governor, Mr. Lawson, declaring
that the tortoises differed from the different islands, and that he
could with certainty tell from which island any one was brought. I
did not for some time pay sufficient attention to this statement, and
I had already partially mingled together the collections from two
of the islands. I never dreamed that islands, about 50 or 60 miles
apart, and most of them in sight of each other, formed of precisely
the same rocks, placed under a quite similar climate, rising to a
nearly equal height, would have been differently tenanted; but …
this is the case. It is the fate of most voyagers, no sooner to
discover what is most interesting in any locality, than they are
hurried from it; but I ought, perhaps, to be thankful that I obtained
sufficient materials to establish this most remarkable fact in the
distribution of organic beings.”
Tahiti
The Beagle left the
Galapagos
Archipelago on
October 20 and arrived
at Tahiti – 3200 miles
off the South American
coast – on November
20.
The ship remained there ten days, during which time Darwin
took a two-day trip to the interior, where he was awed by the
tropical vegetation.
New Zealand
The Beagle arrived at New
Zealand on December 21,
1835. FitzRoy would, less
than a decade later, become
the second governor of New
Zealand and have to deal
with restless Maoris.
Darwin was not impressed with the natives, and compared
them unfavorably with Tahitians.
“Both their persons and houses are filthily dirty and
offensive: the idea of washing either their bodies or their
clothes never seems to enter their heads. I saw a chief,
who was wearing a shirt black and matted with filth; and
when asked how it came to be so dirty, he replied, with
surprise, "Do not you see it is an old one?" Some of the
men have shirts; but the common dress is one or two large
blankets, generally black with dirt, which are thrown over
their shoulders in a very inconvenient and awkward
fashion. A few of the principal chiefs have decent suits of
English clothes; but these are only worn on great
occasions.”
Meanwhile, back in England …
Darwin was regularly sending letters and specimens
back to John Henslow, as well as writing letters to
family members and receiving some in return.
In December 1835 Henslow privately published extracts
from some of the letters he had received from Darwin,
distributing copies to other scientists. They were well
received, and helped make Darwin famous in the
scientific world.
Australia
On January 12, 1836, the Beagle arrived at Sydney
Harbor, which Thomas Henry Huxley would visit a
decade later on the Rattlesnake and meet his future
wife.
Darwin made a long inland trip, marveling at the
extraordinary wildlife in Australia, so different from
that of Europe or South America or any island he had
visited. He supposed it was due to a separate creation.
In February and March the Beagle went to Tasmania
and to another part of Australia.
Shown is the route of a long trip Darwin took in Australia to a
point 120 miles away, having hired a man and two horses.
Keeling (Cocos) Islands (Indian Ocean)
On April 1, 1836, the Beagle arrived at the Keeling
Islands (now called the Cocos Islands), which Darwin
found relatively desolate except for coconut trees.
Darwin found the islands composed mostly of coral,
presumably a coral reef which was once submerged.
He managed to find a few specimens: several small
birds, one species of lizard, and a few insects.
Port Louis, Mauritius Island
On April 29, 1836, the Beagle arrived at Port Louis. Although now
a British colony, the island had formerly been French and had a
definite French look to it, and even the Englishmen spoke French to
their servants. Darwin was intrigued by the hundreds of convicts
(murderers and worse) from India who had been banished there.
“Before seeing these people, I had no idea that the inhabitants of
India were such noble-looking figures. Their skin is extremely
dark, and many of the older men had large mustaches and beards
of a snow-white color; this, together with the fire of their
expression, gave them quite an imposing aspect… The men are
generally quiet and well conducted; from their outward conduct,
their cleanliness, and faithful observance of their strange religious
rites, it was impossible to look at them with the same eyes as on our
wretched convicts in New South Wales.”
Back to England
May 31: The Beagle anchors at Simon’s Bay, near Cape Town.
June 3: Darwin visits Sir John Herschel, the astronomer in charge of
the new Royal Observatory, and they had a long conversation about
natural history. Darwin and Herschel are buried side-by-side in
Westminster Abbey.
July 8: The Beagle arrives at St. Helena Island and stays five days.
Darwin finds the island very desolate, interesting only for its geology.
July 19: The Beagle arrives at Ascencion Island and stays four days.
July – August: FitzRoy takes the Beagle back to Brazil for
confirmatory chronometer measurements.
August 19: The Beagle is at the Azores, uninteresting to Darwin.
October 2: The Beagle arrives back at Falmouth, England, and Darwin
heads right for home.
Darwin back in Shrewsbury
Darwin did not make it home to Shrewsbury until October
4, arriving late in the evening, after everyone had gone to
bed.
He waited until everyone was up and having breakfast to
make a surprise appearance, causing pandemonium.
His father exclaimed, “Why the shape of your head is
different!”
Darwin’s notebooks written on the voyage of the Beagle
totaled 1,383 pages on geology and 368 pages on
zoology.