532 
RETROSPECT 
CHAP. 
And these deeds are done and palliated by men who profess 
to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and 
pray that His Will be done on earth ! It makes one’s blood 
boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our 
American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have 
been and are so guilty ; but it is a consolation to reflect, that 
we at least have made a greater sacrifice than ever made by 
any nation, to expiate our sin. 
On the last day of August we anchored for the second 
time at Porto Praya in the Cape de Verd archipelago ; thence 
we proceeded to the Azores, where we stayed six days. On 
the 2nd of October we made the shores of England ; and at 
Falmouth I left the Beagle , having lived on board the good 
little vessel nearly five years. 
Our Voyage having come to an end, I will take a short 
retrospect of the advantages and disadvantages, the pains and 
pleasures, of our circumnavigation of the world. If a person 
asked my advice, before undertaking a long voyage, my answer 
would depend upon his possessing a decided taste for some 
branch of knowledge, which could by this means be advanced. 
No doubt it is a high satisfaction to behold various countries 
and the many races of mankind, but the pleasures gained at the 
time do not counterbalance the evils. It is necessary to look 
forward to a harvest, however distant that may be, when some 
fruit will be reaped, some good effected. 
Many of the losses which must be experienced are obvious ; 
such as that of the society of every old friend, and of the sight 
of those places with which every dearest remembrance is so 
intimately connected. These losses, however, are at the time 
partly relieved by the exhaustless delight of anticipating the 
long-wished-for day of return. If, as poets say, life is a dream, 
I am sure in a voyage these are the visions which best serve to 
pass away the long night. Other losses, although not at first 
felt, tell heavily after a period : these are the want of room, of 
seclusion, of rest ; the jading feeling of constant hurry ; the 
privation of small luxuries, the loss of domestic society, and 
even of music and the other pleasures of imagination. When 
such trifles are mentioned, it is evident that the real grievances, 
