THE VOYAGE. 6 1 



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 com- 

 pelled 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. 



His character was in several respects one of the 

 most noble which I have ever known. 



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 



