Marvellous Perseverance. 21 



the men, from the fact that many of her type had 

 gone down in heavy gales. She was fairly well 

 equipped ; had a crew of thirty-five men, and was 

 fitted with all the conveniences that one might 

 expect to find at this time. Young Darwin went as 

 a volunteer ; he paid his own expenses, and was to 

 mess with the captain ; so that the voyage began 

 under pleasant auspices and with the promised 

 companionship of a man who was fully interested in 

 science and in complete sympathy with his aims and 

 ambitions. 



Darwin was at this time in the full flush of man- 

 hood ; in every way a delightful companion, and 

 essentially a man to make friends and keep them. 

 His tender and lovable nature, consideration for 

 others, and evident desire to share with all the hard- 

 ships which really could have been avoided, did not 

 fail to create for him the warmest friends not only 

 on shipboard, but wherever he went. An idea of 

 the ship life has been given by Admiral Lord Stokes 

 in the London Times of April 25, 1883 : 



" May I beg a comer for my feeble testimony to 

 the marvellous persevering endurance in the cause of 

 science of that great naturalist, my old and lost 

 friend, Mr. Charles Darwin, whose remains are so 

 very justly to be honoured with a resting-place in 

 Westminster Abbey ? 



" Perhaps no one can better testify to his early and 

 most trying labours than myself. We worked to- 

 gether for several years at the same table in the 

 poop-cabin of the Beagle during her celebrated voy- 

 age, he with his microscope and myself at the charts. 



