38 CHARLES DARWIN 



CHAPTER IV. 



DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS. 



SCARCELY had Darwin taken his pass degree at Cam- 

 bridge when the great event of his life occurred which, 

 more than anything else perhaps, gave the final direction 

 to his categorical genius in the line it was thenceforth so 

 successfully to follow. In the autumn of 1831, when 

 Darwin was just twenty-two, it was decided by Govern- 

 ment to send a ten-gun brig, the ' Beagle,' under command 

 of Captain Fitzroy, to complete the unfinished survey of 

 Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, to map out the shores of 

 Chili and Peru, to visit several of the Pacific archipelagoes, 

 and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements 

 round the whole world. This was an essentially scien- 

 tific expedition, and Captain Fitzroy, afterwards so 

 famous as the meteorological admiral, was a scientific 

 officer of the highest type. He was anxious to be 

 accompanied on his cruise by a competent naturalist 

 who would undertake the collection and preservation of 

 the animals and plants discovered on the voyage, for 

 which purpose he generously offered to give up a share 

 of his own cabin accommodation. Professor Henslow 

 seized upon the opportunity to recommend for the post 

 his promising pupil, young Darwin, ' grandson of the 

 poet.' Darwin gladly volunteered his services without 



