Intense Disapproval of Slavery. 33 



Bahia, was Rio de Janeiro, and while here Darwin 

 went on an extended trip into the interior, going 

 over ground which no naturalist of his attainments 

 had passed before. The country was rich in promise, 

 and, being made up of forest and clearing and 

 abounding in lakes and streams, specimens were 

 everywhere found. The birds engaged his attention, 

 especially the white cranes and egrets, while in the 

 forests he was particularly attracted by the luxuriant 

 vegetation and the wonderful and beautiful flowering 

 parasites. 



It was during this trip that Darwin was enabled to 

 give the world definite information regarding the 

 vampire bat. In England and other countries this 

 creature was popularly considered a monster of 

 enormous size that sucked the blood of its victims, 

 often destroying them. While this belief did not 

 prevail among scientific men, the latter doubted that 

 the vampire fed upon blood at all. 



The party had arrived at Engenhodo, and the 

 worn and exhausted animals had been tied out, 

 when one of the men noticed a small bat resting 

 upon the withers of one of the horses. Darwin 

 secured it while in the act of sucking blood from 

 the animal, so determining the question. The bat 

 was the one known to science as the vampire or 

 Desmodus d 'orhignyi. 



Darwin, as might have been expected from one of 

 his nature, had views upon slavery from which no 

 extenuating circumstances could swerve him. He 

 was radically and utterly opposed to it in any form, 

 and his indignation was continually aroused by the 

 3 



