 Charles Darwin made his way onto
the HMS Beagle by just being a nice guy and being interested in naturalism. He was a
friend with Dr. Henslow, a naturalist himself. They were great friends. Henslow took him
up as a friend and pupil. The Beagle was gathering its crew for its five-year voyage. Captain Robert Fitzroy wanted Dr. Henslow as a naturalist on his voyage. Henslow wanted to go, but Mrs. Henslow didn’t approve. Dr. Henslow couldn’t let Fitzroy down so he sent Darwin. At first Fitzroy was suspicious; he thought Darwin was annoying and weird. The HMS Beagle started its journey on December 27, 1831 during a storm. The Beagle was going to map South America and study natural history of the places they stopped. Unfortunately for Charles he was seasick the whole five-year trip. On January 16, 1832 the Beagle met its first destination at Sao Taiga in the Cape Verde Islands. While on Sao Taiga every creature was new to Darwin. He was interested in almost everything. That is where he became most interested in naturalism. On April 5 the Beagle set Darwin ashore Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian capitol. He spent three months there in Brazil. After Brazil Charles stayed in Argentina for two years. He rode with the Gauchos across Argentina. Darwin found many interesting specimens. He shipped most of them back to Dr. Henslow in England. Later while in the Galapagos, which amazed Darwin even more than Sao Taiga, was when he really thought about evolution. Darwin noticed that the islands were very close to each other. Also he noticed that there were different species of the same animal distributed among the islands. For example there were 14 different species of finch. Finally The Beagle ended its voyage and Charles would be seasick no more. The Beagle landed in England on October 2, 1836. |