The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin

First published: 1839

Type of work: Nature writing

The Work

The Voyage of the Beagle shows the English naturalist Charles Darwin’s brilliant mind already at work on the problems that led to his seminal theory of evolution. The work’s title is somewhat misleading, for the author actually has little to say about the voyage. The original full title—Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by HMS Beagle, under the Command of Captain FitzRoy, RN, from 1832 to 1836—is a better reflection of the scope of the work.

The Voyage of the Beagle is not just an important book in the history of modern thought; it is also a highly significant one in the life of Darwin. As a young man, Darwin had little sense of vocation or direction. When he was sixteen, he began a career of medicine at Edinburgh University. Discovering that he was unfit for the profession, he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1828 to prepare himself to be a clergyman. After failing to take honors or to distinguish himself in any way, he accepted the offer of Captain Robert FitzRoy of the Beagle to sign on as a naturalist on a voyage around the world. The trip took five years; during that time, Darwin not only discovered himself and his career but also began making the observations that he later developed into the theory of evolution expounded in On the Origin of Species (1859). This work, together with the works of Karl Marx and of Sigmund Freud, exerted a powerful influence on twentieth-century scientific thought and values.

In December 1831, the Beagle, a brig sloop of the Royal Navy, set sail from Devonport, England, to begin a series of surveys of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, Peru, some of the islands of the Pacific, and Australia. Chronometric measurements were to be made while the ship circumnavigated the earth. Darwin kept a detailed record of the journey, including his observations about natural history and geology. It was in particular his observations on the relationships between animals segregated geographically (those living on islands and those on the mainland) and between species separated by time (living forms and recently extinct ones) that forced him to reconsider the standard scientific view of the fixity of species. He was also impressed by “the manner in which closely allied animals replace one another in proceeding southwards” in South America.

The Beagle began the voyage by sailing to the coast of South America by way of the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands, and the island of St. Paul’s Rocks. From the first American seaport the ship touched, Rio de Janeiro, Darwin went on an inland excursion; upon his return, he made natural history observations near Botofogo Bay. From there, the expedition went southward to the mouth of the River Plate, where Darwin remained for several weeks, collecting animals, birds, and reptiles. On his journeys to the interior, he met gauchos and witnessed their skill at capturing horses and cattle with lassos and bolas.

From the next anchorage at Rio Negro, Darwin decided to go to Buenos Aires by land under the protection of the Spanish army, who had declared war on various Indian tribes. On this journey, he was able to observe the habits of the South American ostrich.

After a stop in Buenos Aires, Darwin set out for Santa Fe, Argentina, by means of a slow bullock wagon. He returned by boat down the Paraná River to the seacoast and rejoined the Beagle at Montevideo. On an excursion inland from that seaport, Darwin observed herds of sheep that were watched only by dogs who had been brought up with the flocks. On the coast of Patagonia, a land where Spanish settlement was unsuccessful, Darwin observed the guanaco, or wild llama, which he found to be extremely wary but easily domesticated after capture. From Patagonia, the Beagle went to the Falkland Islands, where Darwin found horses, cattle, and rabbits thriving on the seemingly desolate land. In Tierra del Fuego, the natives existed in an utterly savage state, with barely enough food and clothing to maintain a miserable existence.

On board the Beagle were three Fuegians who had been taken to England to be educated and taught the Christian religion and were now to be returned to their own tribes, accompanied by a missionary. The ship anchored in Ponsonby Sound, and four boats set out to carry the Fuegians home. All the natives gathered on shore wherever they landed and asked for gifts. When their wants were not entirely satisfied, they became hostile. The missionary decided that it would be useless for him to stay among them.

Once the Beagle arrived in Valparaíso, Chile, Darwin set out to observe the geological formations at the base of the AndesMountains. On that journey, he saw copper and gold mines.

While at anchor in a harbor of the island of Chiloé, all aboard were able to observe the eruption of a volcano on the Chilean mainland. About a month after the Beagle sailed north again, a great earthquake shook parts of the coast and the nearby islands. Darwin saw the damage caused by the earthquake in the harbor city of Concepción, where almost every building was demolished. Part of the town was also swept by a tremendous tidal wave.

After the Beagle returned to Valparaíso, Darwin procured guides and mules and set out to cross the Andes to the Argentinean province of Mendoza. Proceeding eastward through the Portillo Pass and returning through the Uspallata Pass, he reported beautiful scenery and collected much interesting geological and natural history data. When the Beagle sailed up the coast of northern Chile and continued northward to Peru, Darwin saw a saltpeter works and visited Lima. The city did not impress him, for it was dirty and ugly, suffering from many revolutions and an almost continual state of anarchy.

Lima was the last point at which the Beagle touched on the western coast of South America. The ship proceeded next to the Galápagos archipelago, where the most interesting feature was the prevalence of great tortoises. The inhabitants often killed these reptiles for their meat. Most of the birds on the islands were completely tame, for they had not yet learned to regard humans as their enemy. The ship proceeded on to Tahiti, where Darwin was impressed by the swimming ability of the Polynesians. He explored the island's mountains with the help of guides.

From Tahiti, the Beagle went south to the British colony of New South Wales in Australia, which at the time included New Zealand. While in New Zealand, Darwin first witnessed the Maori social greeting of rubbing noses, similar to the European custom of shaking hands.

After leaving this group of islands, the ship headed back to Brazil to complete chronometric measurements. On the way, Darwin visited the island of St. Helena. It was on this last part of the journey that Darwin began to record in his journal his theories about the formation of coralreefs, many of which he had observed during his stay in the South Seas. Darwin was glad to leave Brazil for the second time, for the practice of slavery in that country sickened him. In October 1836, the Beagle returned to England.

As important as The Voyage of the Beagle is to the understanding of the genesis of Darwin’s theory of evolution and an appreciation of his struggle for self-discovery, the book’s most significant aspect is the insight it provides into the Victorian mind. Darwin shared many characteristics with other Victorian intellectuals of his generation, such as Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, John Henry Newman, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Principally, this generation of the 1830s was motivated by a conviction of personal destiny and a sense of being at the beginning of a new era, one in which the old ways of viewing matters would no longer apply. With the exception of Newman, they all came to embrace an idea of progress, either spiritual or social. Darwin found in nature a reason to assert that there was biological progress. Indeed, he provided Tennyson, for example, with metaphoric proof, in his theory of natural selection, of the poet’s own concept of ethical evolution. The Voyage of the Beagle reflects the combination of zest for adventure and sense of mission that identifies Darwin clearly with his age and generation.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Darwin was his openness to experiences of all kinds. From the start, he exhibited immense energy and thoroughness. Despite his commitment to naturalistic data, he remained responsive to the human dimension, and his observations are touched by sentiment and, at times, outrage. His description of the sheepdogs could be written only by an animal lover, and he does not hold back his outrage and disgust when describing the conditions of anarchy and poverty in Lima.

One of the most salient aspects of nature is its cruelty, which Darwin faced with unceasing honesty, particularly in the Galápagos Islands. About twenty years after the return of the Beagle, he wrote, “What a book a devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel works of nature.” In a sense, it is the other side of the coin of natural selection. If Darwin’s theory of evolution points to a general progress of a species, it also reveals the indifference of nature to individuals within the species. It was precisely Darwin’s openness to nature that allowed him to perceive this duality, and it was his scientific honesty—which necessitated his acceptance of his observations—that supported the final development of his thought. Both of these attributes are reflected in The Voyage of the Beagle.

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