The Reverend Professor
Henslow, who, when I was an undergraduate at Cambridge, was
one chief means of giving me a taste for Natural History, --
who, during my absence, took charge of the collections I sent
home, and by his correspondence directed my endeavours, -- and
who, since my return, has constantly rendered me every
assistance which the kindest friend could offer.
DOWN, BROMLEY, KENT,
June 9, 1845
[1] I must take this opportunity of returning my sincere thanks
to Mr. Bynoe, the surgeon of the Beagle, for his very kind
attention to me when I was ill at Valparaiso.
THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE
CHAPTER I
ST. JAGO - CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS
Porto Praya - Ribeira Grande - Atmospheric Dust with
Infusoria - Habits of a Sea-slug and Cuttle-fish - St.
Paul's Rocks, non-volcanic - Singular Incrustations -
Insects the first Colonists of Islands - Fernando Noronha -
Bahia - Burnished Rocks - Habits of a Diodon - Pelagic
Confervae and Infusoria - Causes of discoloured Sea.
AFTER having been twice driven back by heavy southwestern
gales, Her Majesty's ship Beagle, a ten-gun
brig, under the command of Captain Fitz Roy, R. N.,
sailed from Devonport on the 27th of December, 1831. The
object of the expedition was to complete the survey of
Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, commenced under Captain King
in 1826 to 1830, - to survey the shores of Chile, Peru, and
of some islands in the Pacific - and to carry a chain of
chronometrical measurements round the World.
