Where Australia Collides with Asia The epic voyages of Joseph Banks, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and the origin

Charles Darwin – The Early Years

In the tragic case of Pringle Stokes the absence of fellowship may have helped
cause his suicide. For this reason, Robert FitzRoy felt it was necessary to have a
companion on board with whom he could share his meals, his interests and if necessary
his worries. Since the voyage was also a scientific one, he sought to find a scientist
and a gentleman, who without shipboard duties could fulfil the role as a companion.
In FitzRoy’s own words:

Anxious that no opportunity of collecting useful information, during the voyage, should be
lost: I proposed to the Hydrographer that some well-educated and scientific person should
be sought for who would willingly share such accommodations as I had to offer, in order
to profit by the opportunity of visiting distant countries yet little known. Captain Beaufort
approved of the suggestion, and wrote to Professor Peacock, of Cambridge, who consulted
with a friend, Professor Henslow, and he named Mr. Charles Darwin, grandson of Darwin
the poet, as a young man of promising ability, extremely fond of geology, and indeed all
branches of natural history.
Darwin was told the voyage would last two years, perhaps even three or four, but he
would be free to leave the ship and return home if he found this necessary. He would also
be free to go ashore, to explore and collect natural history specimens while the Beagle
was mapping and doing its hydrographic
studies along the coastline. This was the
opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to follow
his hero Humboldt, to combine exotic travel
with scientific discovery, not just in South
America but around the entire world, and
for the young Darwin there was only one
possible response.
But his father was less than enthusiastic.
Except for pursuing his hobby of collecting
beetles and acquiring an interest in geology,
his son had frittered away his time at
Cambridge. Now he had come up with
some foolhardy idea to voyage around the
world as a naturalist, something for which
he had few academic qualifications. After
a difficult conversation with his father,
Charles Darwin was obliged to write the
following response to John Henslow:

Portrait of Captain Robert FitzRoy, 1835, from the

Narrative of the Voyage of the Beagle, Wellcome

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