Darwin, Charles (Robert) 1809 -- 1882
Naturalist; best known as the discoverer of natural selection. Born February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England, at almost exactly the same hour as Abraham Lincoln. Darwin's father was a doctor; his mother was the daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the founder of the famous pottery firm. His grandfather (already dead) was a famous botanist, Erasmus Darwin. Darwin's mother died when he was eight years old. He was not a very successful student, but as a teenager he became interested in natural science and started various collections. He went to Edinburgh University to study medicine but did not do well. He transferred to Cambridge University with the idea of studying theology and becoming a clergyman. There he met Professor John Henslow, a botanist, who became his mentor and persuaded him to study geology. He also read Alexander von Humboldt's book, A Personal Narrative, about his travels in South America, which greatly inspired him.
Darwin got his B.A. degree from Cambridge in June 1831. During the summer he traveled with a geology professor to study rock formations in Wales. On his return to Shrewsbury on August 29, he found a letter waiting for him from Henslow. Henslow had recommended Darwin for a job as naturalist on board a Royal Navy ship, the Beagle, under the command of Captain Robert Fitzroy. The ship was going on a long trip to survey the southern coasts of South America. Darwin's father was initially opposed because he felt that this would keep him from starting his career in the church. With the help of his Wedgwood relatives, Darwin was able to get his father's permission.
The Beagle left England on December 27, 1831. It was a small ship, only 90 feet long, with a crew of 74. Darwin's laboratory was a small space at the end of the chartroom, where he also had his hammock for sleeping. Not only was his space cramped, but Darwin suffered miserably from seasickness every day that the ship was at sea. He tried to remedy this by spending as much time ashore as possible and often traveled overland to meet up with the ship at another port.
From England the Beagle sailed to the Cape Verde Islands and then to the Brazilian port of Bahia, where it arrived on February 29, 1832. Darwin spent much of his time there collecting specimens from the surrounding forests. He also got into a violent quarrel with Fitzroy on the subject of slavery (a major question in Brazil at the time) to which Darwin was adamantly opposed. Reaching Rio de Janeiro in early April, Darwin met an Irishman and traveled with him by horseback for seven days to his coffee plantation in the interior. Along the way, he collected specimens of the teeming insect life.
In July and August 1832 Darwin and the Beagle were in Montevideo in Uruguay. During this first visit, the ship's crew did not have many opportunities to go ashore because of civil unrest. On August 19, the Beagle headed south to begin surveying the coast of Patagonia in southern Argentina. On September 23 near Bahia Blanca, Darwin made a highly significant discovery he bones of "numerous gigantic extinct Quadrupeds." There were remains of several different species, none of which existed any longer, and they were covered with seashells. The fact that these creatures had been alive "whilst the sea was peopled with most of its present inhabitants" was an important revelation.
In January 1833, the Beagle sailed into the Beagle Channel south of the large island of Tierra del Fuego. It was hit by a storm that lasted 24 days and at one point almost overturned the ship. Darwin was seasick for most of the time. The aim in going to Tierra del Fuego was to return three native Fuegians that Fitzroy had taken on board during a previous voyage. With them went a missionary, sent to convert the Fuegians to Christianity. On their arrival, one of the Fuegians did not want to return home, and the ship had to return a week later to pick up the missionary who had been threatened with his life by the Native Americans on the island. Soon after, they almost lost the ship's boats when a glacier "calved" and created giant waves that almost washed the boats out to sea.
In March and April 1833 the Beagle spent five weeks in the Falkland Islands, which had just been claimed by Great Britain. It spent the southern winter in the harbor in Montevideo. In August 1833 Fitzroy left Darwin ashore at the little town of Carmen de Patagones while the ship carried out routine surveying chores. Darwin rode overland to Bahia Blanca where he re-examined the fossil remains and thought about their significance. By the time he left on September 8, 1833 he had begun to doubt the accepted view that the species were unchangeable and had existed in their current form ever since the Creation. His entire outlook on the nature of life had changed. He was careful, however, not to share his views with Fitzroy, who remained a firm "Creationist" all his life.
From Bahia Blanca Darwin traveled north across the Argentine pampas (plains) accompanied by gauchos (cowboys) who hunted with bolas and lazos (a kind of weighted lasso). Along the way he met the Argentine dictator, Juan Manuel Rosas, who was engaged in a war of extermination against the Native Americans of the pampas. He saw flocks of rheas, a form of ostrich, which were flightless but could outrun most horses. Darwin found the remains of an unknown species of rhea that he sent back to England and which was named after him?I>rhea darwinii.
After reaching Buenos Aires and resting a few days at the home of an English merchant, Darwin traveled up the Parana River to the port city of Santa Fe, where he saw some more fossils. He then made a trip from Mercedes to Montevideo in Uruguay, where he met up with the Beagle on December 6, 1833. In March 1834, after having visited the Falkland Islands once again, the Beagle went back to Tierra del Fuego where they met up with one of the returned Fuegians. In April they sailed up the coast of Patagonia, putting into the mouth of the Santa Cruz River to carry out some repairs.
On April 18, 1834 Fitzroy and Darwin with 23 men and three whaleboats set off on a three-week journey of exploration up the Santa Cruz River. They saw continual signs of Native Americans but never met up with any in the cold desert region of southern Patagonia. They traveled to the foothills of the Andes and came within a few miles of the river's source at Lago Argentino without realizing it. Along the way, Darwin shot a condor that had a wing span of eight feet. To Darwin's disappointment they were forced to turn back because of low supplies. The others wished not to, but Darwin remained cheerful: "Almost every one is discontented with this expedition, much hard work, and much time lost and scarcely anything seen or gained ... To me the cruize (sic) has been most satisfactory, from affording so excellent a section of the great tertiary formations of Patagonia."
At the end of May 1834 the Beagle entered the Straits of Magellan for the last time and then exited into the Pacific. Stormy weather made sailing slow, and they put in on Chiloe Island to wait for better weather. The ship's purser died there. They reached Valparaiso, the chief port of Chile, on July 23, 1834. An old acquaintance from Shrewsbury was living there, and Darwin stayed as a guest in his house. Like many of his shipmates, he was ill for the first few weeks of his stay. In fact, it appears as though Fitzroy suffered a nervous breakdown in Valparaiso, and this delayed their departure. Darwin used the extra time to set out on an expedition across the Andes to the Argentine town of Mendoza. In November 1834 Fitzroy took the Beagle south again to Chiloe Island. Darwin was able to get a specimen of the very rare Chilotan fox by walking up behind it while it was observing two British officers take measurements and hitting it on the head with his geological hammer. On February 20, 1835 at Valdivia on the coast of Chile, they experienced the strongest earthquake that anyone in the area had experienced, which destroyed the city of Concepcion farther north. When they reached Concepcion, Darwin found that the earthquake had permanently raised the land and saw evidence of such uplift from previous quakes as well.
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