It was at San Salvador that Darwin describes a disagreement with Robert FitzRoy.
The Darwin and the Wedgewood families were staunch abolitionists and both his
grandfathers had played a prominent role in the anti-slavery movement. While in San
Salvador, Darwin found the sights of slavery offensive and when FitzRoy defended
the practice by describing a recent visit to a slave owner whose slaves replied ‘no’ on
being asked by their master if they wished to be freed, Darwin suggested that answers
in such circumstances were worthless. Enraged that his word had been questioned,
FitzRoy lost his temper and banned Darwin from his company. Darwin thought that
he would have to leave the ship but within hours FitzRoy sent an apology and asked
Darwin to return. In his autobiography, Darwin wrote of FitzRoy that he was extremely
kind to him, but the ‘difficulty of living on good terms with a Captain of a Man-of-War
is much increased by it being almost mutinous to answer him as one would answer
anyone else’.
Throughout the voyage Darwin gathered plants, birds, rocks and marine creatures,
and it was from Rio de Janeiro that he sent back his first shipment to England for later
description and assessment. During his stay here Darwin resided in a cottage in the
beautiful Botafogo Bay just below the well-known Corcovado Mountain upon which
now stands the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer. From here he made collecting
excursions into the countryside or visited the botanic gardens where the leaves of
the camphor, pepper, cinnamon and clove trees were delightfully aromatic, while the
breadfruit, jackfruit and mango trees vied with each other in the magnificence of their
foliage. Sitting outside his house in the cool of the tropical evening, he would delight
in the great concert provided by the natural world as frogs, cicadas and crickets
ceaselessly called to each other.
From Rio de Janeiro the Beagle sailed south to Montevideo and then to the Rio
Negro. It was in Montevideo that the ship’s artist Augustus Earle fell ill and it was here
that Robert FitzRoy engaged Conrad Martens as a draughtsman to replace him. One
of Darwin’s most significant discoveries was at Punta Alta, the high cliffs overlooking
the harbour of Bahia Blanca. Here the fossil remains of nine great quadrupeds and
many detached bones were found in the cliffs along the beach. These were the bones
of the giant megafauna which had previously roamed these plains, and later described
as Megatherium (a giant sloth), Megalonyx, Scelidotherium, Mylodon and Toxodon (a
giant capybara type rodent) and Glyptodon (a giant type of armadillo). The teeth of
these animals indicate they were vegetarians and fed off the grasses and leaves that
existed in the area. Darwin describes his discovery:
I obtained a jaw bone, which contained a tooth: by this I found that it belongs to the great
ante-diluvia animal the Megatherium (like a giant sloth). This is particularly interesting as
the only specimens in Europe are in the King’s collection at Madrid, where for all purposesCharles Darwin – The Voyage of the Beagle^69