CHARLES DARWIN, 109 



any young man who would volunteer to go with him without pay 

 as Xaturalist to the Voyage of the * Beagle.' " Having read in 

 Humboldt's 'Travels' of the glories of Tencriffe, he had been 

 wishing to go to sea, and is "instantly eager to accept the offer." 

 His father at first objects, fearing that the voyage will unsettle 

 him for the Church, but gives way to the persuasion of his uncle, 

 Josiah Wedgwood, son of the famous potter, and after an interview 

 with Fitz-Iloy all is soon arranged. The chief incidents and general 

 results of the voyage are very pleasantly and graphically told in 

 the earliest and most popular of Darwin's works, ' A Naturalist's 

 Voyage round the World,' first published in 1839 (when he was 

 30 years of age) under the title of ' Journal of Researches into the 

 Geology and jSTatural History of the various countries visited by 

 H.M.S. Beagle, under the command of Captain Fitz-Roy, E..N., 

 from 1832 to 1836.' 



This voyage, he says, was the most important event in his life, 

 determining his whole career. During his five years on the 

 "Beagle" he acquired a habit "of energetic industry and of 

 concentrated attention " to whatever he was engaged in. His love 

 for science " gradually preponderated over every other taste," and 

 he discovered that " the pleasure of observing and reasoning was a 

 much higher one than that of skill and sport." Three things seem 

 to have made a great impression upon his mind — the beauty of 

 tropical vegetation, the sight of a savage in his native land, and 

 the horrors of slavery. One thing only interfered with his 

 enjoyment — frequent sea-sickness. This he never got over, and it 

 seems to have made him dyspeptic for the rest of his life. 



He thus gives the impression which the scenery of Bahia in 

 Brazil made upon him. "When walking quietly along the shady 

 pathways, and admiring each successive view, I wished to find 

 language to express my ideas. Epithet after epithet was found too 

 weak to convey to those who have not visited the intertropical 

 regions, the sensation of delight which the mind experiences. 

 . . , , The land is one great wild, untidy, luxuriant hothouse, 

 made by Nature for herself, but taken possession of by man, who 

 has studded it with gay houses and formal gardens. How great 

 would be the desire in every admirer of nature to behold, if such 

 were possible, the scenery of another planet ! Yet, to every person 

 in Europe, it may be truly said that at the distance of only a few 

 degrees from his native soil, the glories of another world are 

 opened to him. In my last walk I stopped again and again to 

 gaze on these beauties, and endeavoured to fix in my mind for 

 ever, an impression which at the time I knew sooner or later must 



