98 



THE VOYAGE. .ETAT. 22. 



out on one side of the table for some time would enable 

 him to resume his labours for a while, when he had again 

 to lie down. 



"It was distressing to witness this early sacrifice of Mr. 

 Darwin's health, who ever afterwards seriously felt the ill- 

 effects of the Beagle's voyage." 



Mr. A. B. Usborne writes, " He was a dreadful sufferer 

 from sea-sickness, and at times, when I have been officer of 

 the watch, and reduced the sails, making the ship more easy, 

 and thus relieving him, I have been pronounced by him to be 

 ' a good officer,' and he would resume his microscopic ob- 

 servations in the poop cabin." The amount of work that he 

 got through on the Beagle shows that he was habitually in full 

 vigour ; he had, however, one severe illness, in South Amer- 

 ica, when he was received into the house of an Englishman, 

 Mr. Corfield, who tended him with careful kindness. I have 

 heard him say that in this illness every secretion of the body 

 was affected, and that when he described the symptoms to his 

 father Dr. Darwin could make no guess as to the nature of 

 the disease. My father was sometimes inclined to think that 

 the breaking up of his health was to some extent due to this 

 attack. 



The Beagle letters give ample proof of his strong love of 

 home, and all connected with it, from his father down to 

 Nancy, his old nurse, to whom he sometimes sends his love. 



His delight in home-letters is shown in such passages as : — 

 " But if you knew the glowing, unspeakable delight, which I 

 felt at being certain that my father and all of you were well, 

 only four months ago, you would not grudge the labour lost 

 in keeping up the regular series of letters." 



Or again — his longing to return in words like these : — 

 " It is too delightful to think that I shall see the leaves fall 

 and hear the robin sing next autumn at Shrewsbury. My 

 feelings are those of a schoolboy to the smallest point; I 

 doubt whether ever boy longed for his holidays as much as 

 I do to see you all again. I am at present, although nearly 



