Fossils, Finches and Fuegians: Charles Darwin’s Adventures and Discoveries on the Beagle

CHAPTER 2

The Strange Consequences of Stealing a Whale-Boat

On 25 September 1513 the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the narrow isthmus joining the two halves of the American continent to discover on the far side the Mar del Sur, later named the Pacific Ocean. The town of Panama was built on the Pacific shore, and became the base for a rapid expansion by the Spaniards. While Hernán Cortés was conquering the Aztec empire in Mexico, Francisco Pizarro was overcoming the Incas in Peru. During the next three hundred years prosperous Spanish colonies were established in the western and southernmost parts of South America, while in the east the Portuguese took over a large area in Brazil.

The English were jealous of their success, but for a long time could only benefit from it by robbery, following the example of Sir Francis Drake when he returned from his circumnavigation in 1580 with a rich cargo of treasures stolen from the Spanish colonies at Queen Elizabeth’s behest. In 1806 Buenos Aires was attacked by a British force, which was successfully repelled, giving the Argentinians the confidence to join the other Spanish colonies in breaking away from Spain. By 1820 they were all independent countries, though not always at peace with one another.

The Hydrographic Office of the Royal Navy, founded in 1795, was initially responsible for looking after the Admiralty’s collection of navigational charts, and of the ‘Remark Books’ about foreign shores and harbours that all naval captains were required to keep. In 1817 the second Hydrographer, Captain Hurd, was empowered to recruit some surveyors of his own, and had soon built up a programme of a dozen Admiralty surveys in home waters and abroad. Trade was quickly building up with the new governments of South America, and there was a need both for a British naval presence in South American waters, and for accurate charts of the coastline to assist shipping. Hence it came about that:

In 1825, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty directed two ships to be prepared for a Survey of the Southern Coasts of South America; and in May of the following year the ADVENTURE and the BEAGLE were lying in Plymouth Sound, ready to carry the orders of their Lordships into execution. These vessels were well provided with every necessary, and every comfort, which the liberality and kindness of the Admiralty, Navy Board, and officers of the Dock-yards, could cause to be furnished.32

HMS Adventure was a ‘roomy’ ship of 330 tons, without guns, under the command of Captain Phillip Parker King. HMS Beagle was a smaller vessel of 235 tons, rigged as a barque carrying six guns, and commanded by Captain Pringle Stokes. On 19 November 1826, Adventure and Beagle sailed south from Monte Video, and until April 1827 carried out surveys in the south of Patagonia and in Tierra del Fuego, around the Straits of Magellan. In June 1827 they arrived back at Rio de Janeiro. Six months later, now accompanied by a schooner named Adelaide to assist in the surveys – for whose purchase Captain King had prudently obtained Admiralty approval in advance, unlike Captain FitzRoy when in 1833 he bought the second and smaller Adventure – they sailed south again. In January 1828 the Adventure was anchored for the winter at Port Famine. Captain Stokes was ordered in the Beagle ‘to proceed to survey the western coasts, between the Strait of Magalhaens and latitude 47° south, or as much of those dangerous and exposed shores as he could examine’, and to return to Port Famine (Puerto Hambre) by the end of July. Captain King allotted himself a more comfortable task in the Adelaide, charting the southern parts of the Strait relatively close at hand, and collecting birds and plants.

When at the appointed time the Beagle returned to Port Famine with her difficult assignment conscientiously completed, Captain Stokes was found to be in a state of acute depression thanks to the extreme privations and hardships that he and his crew had suffered from very severe weather, both stormy and wet, when working in the Gulf of Peñas. On 1 August 1828 he tried unsuccessfully to shoot himself, and although the surgeons thought for a while that he might recover, he died in great pain on 12 August. He was interred at the Adventure’s burial ground, the so-called English Cemetery two miles from Port Famine. (The tablet erected to his memory has since been moved to the Museo Saleciano in the modern town of Punta Arenas, some forty miles away along the Straits of Magellan.)

The Adventure and the Beagle, temporarily commanded by her First Lieutenant, William Skyring, sailed back to Rio de Janeiro in October for repairs and replenishment of their stores. Here Admiral Otway, Commander-in-Chief of the South American Station, appointed his young Flag Lieutenant, Robert FitzRoy,* to take over command of the Beagle in succession to Captain Pringle Stokes. His choice was successful, and FitzRoy had soon overcome the handicap of restoring the morale of a demoralised ship’s company well enough to continue the charting of one of the world’s most inhospitable coasts.

During 1829 the Adventure, Beagle and Adelaide conducted independent surveys at various points between Tierra del Fuego and Chiloe, coming together at Valparaiso in November. On 19 November the Beagle departed to survey more of the southern coasts of Tierra del Fuego before rejoining the Adventure at Rio de Janeiro for the final return to England. Working among the Camden and Stewart Islands to the south of the mouth of the Cockburn Channel, FitzRoy found tiresome anomalies in his compass bearings, and wrote in his journal for 24 January 1830:

There may be metal in many of the Fuegian mountains, and I much regret that no person in the vessel was skilled in mineralogy, or at all acquainted with geology. It is a pity that so good an opportunity of ascertaining the nature of the rocks and earths of these regions should have been almost lost. I could not avoid often thinking of the talent and experience required for such scientific researches, of which we were wholly destitute; and inwardly resolving, that if ever I left England again on a similar expedition, I would endeavour to carry out a person qualified to examine the land; while the officers and myself would attend to hydrography.33

A week later it was reported to FitzRoy that the ship’s five-oared whale-boat, manned by Mr Murray, the Master, and a small crew, had been stolen during the night by the Fuegians near Cape Desolation, ‘now doubly deserving of its name’. The bad news was brought to the Beagle by two of the sailors, paddling a basket-like canoe that they had thrown together for the purpose, and whose curious structure was commemorated in the names given both to the small island on which Cape Desolation was located, and to the first of the Fuegians taken hostage by FitzRoy.*

On the Beagle’s map of the Strait of Magalhaens (sic),34 Basket Isle was inserted near the western end of Tierra del Fuego, with Thieves Sound to the north, and Whale Boat Sound to the east. In a modern map the area lies on the coast of Tierra del Fuego due south of Punta Arenas. FitzRoy responded to the theft with a campaign to capture hostages for return of the whale-boat, but the move failed, largely because the Fuegians showed no interest in exchanging their booty for their comrades, who remained quite happily on the ship. So he was left with the young girl Fuegia Basket, ‘as broad as she was high’, and the men York Minster, taken in Christmas Sound near the cliff of that name, and Boat Memory captured later nearby. He soon began to appreciate the practical difficulties that would arise in returning them immediately to their own peoples, and to consider the possibility of taking them back to England for a period of education before they were repatriated.

While a replacement for the whale-boat was being built at Doris Cove, situated on an island beside Adventurer Passage, Mr Murray was dispatched in the ship’s cutter to explore the waters to the north and east of Nassau Bay. Not far to the north, but a long way to the east, he sailed through a channel little more than a third of a mile wide which became known as the Murray Narrow, and which ‘led him into a straight channel, averaging about two miles or more in width, and extending nearly east and west as far as the eye could reach’. He had discovered the Beagle Channel, whose precise orientation on the map would provide grounds for legal dispute long afterwards in arguments between Argentina and Chile over territorial rights in the Antarctic. The new country was thickly populated, and on 11 May 1830, when the Beagle herself was in the Murray Narrow, some canoes full of natives anxious for barter were encountered. FitzRoy wrote: ‘I told one of the boys in a canoe to come into our boat, and gave the man who was with him a large shining mother-of-pearl button.’35 Jemmy Button, as the boat’s crew called him, quickly settled down in his new surroundings, and there were now four Fuegians in FitzRoy’s little group.36

At the end of June the Beagle sailed back to the Rio Plata. While in Monte Video, FitzRoy tried to have the Fuegians vaccinated against smallpox, whose ravages were all too often fatal to unprotected natives, but the vaccination did not take. At the beginning of August the Beagle rejoined the Adventure in Rio de Janeiro, and together they made a ‘most tedious’ passage to Plymouth, where they anchored on 14 October.

FitzRoy’s first thought was for the Fuegians. Landing after dark, they were taken to lodgings where next day they were vaccinated for the second time. With the Beagle’s coxswain James Bennett to look after them, they were then transferred to a farmhouse in the country near Plymstock, where they could enjoy the fresh air and hopefully avoid infection by other virus diseases, without attracting public attention. Meanwhile the Beagle was stripped and cleared out, and on 27 October her pendant was hauled down.

During the voyage home, FitzRoy had addressed through Captain King to John Barrow,37 Second Secretary of the Admiralty, a long account of the manner in which he had taken the four Fuegians on board the Beagle,38 and of his proposal to return them to their country after they had received some education. Mr Barrow’s response, although it was negatively worded and predictably lacking in enthusiasm, said that their Lordships would not interfere with FitzRoy’s benevolent intentions towards the Fuegians, would afford him facilities towards their maintenance and education, and would give them a passage home again. Their Lordships’ promise was duly kept when early in November Boat Memory was taken ill with smallpox, and instructions were at once given for the Fuegians to be admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital at Plymouth for vaccination and treatment. Unhappily Boat Memory, who was FitzRoy’s favourite among them, could not be saved, but the other three were successfully re-vaccinated. Fuegia Basket was in addition taken home by the doctor in charge of them in order to be exposed to measles with his own children. She duly had a favourable attack and quickly recovered with a strengthened immune system.

Through contacts with the Church Missionary Society, the Fuegians were next taken to Walthamstow just outside London for schooling in charge of the Revd William Wilson, and remained in his care until October 1831, still with James Bennett to keep an eye on them. Fuegia Basket and Jemmy Button were very receptive pupils, but the older man York Minster was not. He would reluctantly assist with practical activities like gardening, but firmly refused to learn to read. He also took what seemed to be an unhealthy interest in the ten-year-old Fuegia, following her everywhere, keeping her well away from other men, and treating her as if she was his personal possession. At this time there was no suggestion that anything sexual took place between them, though on board the Beagle later on she was deemed to be officially engaged to York in order to avoid embarrassment, and back in Tierra del Fuego she did become his wife. During that summer the Fuegians were taken to St James’s Palace at King William IV’s request, and Queen Adelaide honoured Fuegia Basket by placing one of her own bonnets on the girl’s head and a ring on her finger, and gave her some money to buy clothes for returning home.

FitzRoy had been led by Captain King to suppose that the Adventure and Beagle’s surveys in South America would need to be continued by some other ship, giving him an opportunity to restore the Fuegians to their native land. But having in March 1831 completed his official obligations with respect to the Beagle’s 1826–1830 cruise, for which he was officially commended, FitzRoy discovered that the Admiralty’s plans had for no stated reason been altered, and that their Lordships no longer intended to complete the survey. Feeling that he could not trust anyone but himself to return the Fuegians to the precise places from which they had been taken, he obtained twelve months’ leave of absence from the Navy. In June he made at his own expense an agreement with the owner of a small merchant ship to take him with five companions, the Fuegians, and a number of goats to Tierra del Fuego, where he proposed to stock some of the islands with goats and deposit his protégée and protégés. This agreement did not, however, have to be put into effect, for FitzRoy happened one day to mention his problem to one of his aristocratic and politically influential uncles, the fourth Duke of Grafton, and the former Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh’s half-brother Lord Londonderry. After some effective wire-pulling at the Admiralty, their Lordships were persuaded to appoint FitzRoy to command the Beagle once again for a second surveying cruise.

The greatest of hydrographers, Captain Francis Beaufort, who had taken charge of the Hydrographic Office in 1829, embraced with enthusiasm the opportunity of filling in some of the many blank spaces in the existing maps of the coast of Argentina and Tierra del Fuego, and extending the naval charts to cover not only Argentina and the Falkland Islands, but also more of the coasts of Chile and Peru as far north as Ecuador. FitzRoy would also be entrusted with the task of carrying a chain of meridian distances, which measured the difference in longitude between an established location and a new one, all the way round the world by sailing back across the Pacific. The Beagle was therefore instructed to return via the Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia – calling at Port Jackson observatory in Sydney, Hobart, and King George Sound – the Cocos Keeling Islands, Mauritius, the Cape of Good Hope, St Helena, Ascension, and so home. Beaufort’s long Memorandum to FitzRoy,39 carefully explaining this plan, included a note forbidding senior officers whom he might encounter to take from him any of his instruments or chronometers; instructions for sedulous observations of the eclipses of Jupiter’s third and fourth satellites; and advice on the best way of handling natives. Lastly, the Beagle was the first ship in the Navy to be issued with Beaufort’s list of the Figures, still in popular use today, to denote the force of the wind, based at the lower end on the speeds at which a man-of-war with all sails set would be driven, and at the upper end on what set of sails could just be carried safely at full chase. A second list of letters was drawn up to describe the state of the weather, but this has now fallen out of use.

The Beaufort Scale

While the Beagle was being extensively refitted at Devonport in preparation for her long voyage, FitzRoy, remembering his resolution to recruit a geologist should he pay another visit to Tierra del Fuego,30 set about finding ‘some well-educated and scientific person 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’.40 He began by consulting the most appropriate person at the Admiralty, Francis Beaufort, who being closely in touch with the scientific reformers at Cambridge and in the Royal Society was keen to modernise and bring more science into the Hydrographic Office, and was immediately sympathetic. Beaufort accordingly wrote to his mathematical friend George Peacock at Trinity College, Cambridge, telling him of the opening for ‘a savant’ on a surveying ship. Early in August, Peacock passed the news on to Henslow, although he had not perfectly interpreted the situation in speaking of a vacancy specifically for a naturalist, and in later correspondence placed greater emphasis on FitzRoy’s need for a companionable and gentlemanly scientist:

My dear Henslow

Captain Fitz Roy is going out to survey the southern coast of Terra del Fuego, & afterwards to visit many of the South Sea Islands & to return by the Indian Archipelago: the vessel is fitted out expressly for scientific purposes, combined with the survey: it will furnish therefore a rare opportunity for a naturalist & it would be a great misfortune that it should be lost:

An offer has been made to me to recommend a proper person to go out as a naturalist with this expedition; he will be treated with every consideration; the Captain is a young man of very pleasing manners (a nephew of the Duke of Grafton), of great zeal in his profession & who is very highly spoken of; if Leonard Jenyns could go, what treasures he might bring home with him, as the ship would be placed at his disposal, whenever his enquiries made it necessary or desirable; in the absence of so accomplished a naturalist, is there any person whom you could strongly recommend: he must be such a person as would do credit to our recommendation.

Do think on this subject: it would be a serious loss to the cause of natural science, if this fine opportunity was lost.

The ship sails about the end of Septr.

Poor Ramsay!* what a loss to us all & particularly to you.

Believe me / My dear Henslow / Most truly yours /

George Peacock

7 Suffolk Street / Pall Mall East

My dear Henslow

I wrote this letter on Saturday, but I was too late for the post. What a glorious opportunity this would be for forming collections for our museums: do write to me immediately & take care that the opportunity is not lost.

Believe me / My dear Henslow / Most truly yours /

Geo Peacock

7 Suffolk St. / Monday41

As has already been seen, Leonard Jenyns was another clerical naturalist, brother-in-law of Henslow and vicar of Swaffham Bulbeck near Cambridge. After a day’s consideration of the offer, Jenyns decided regretfully that he could not leave his parish. Henslow therefore turned to Charles Darwin as the obvious alternative choice, and on 24 August wrote:

My dear Darwin, Before I enter upon the immediate business of this letter, let us condole together upon the loss of our inestimable friend poor Ramsay of whose death you have undoubtedly heard long before this. I will not now dwell upon this painful subject as I shall hope to see you shortly fully expecting that you will eagerly catch at the offer which is likely to be made you of a trip to Terra del Fuego & home by the East Indies. I have been asked by Peacock who will read & forward this to you from London to recommend him a naturalist as companion to Capt Fitzroy employed by Government to survey the S. extremity of America. I have stated that I consider you to be the best qualified person I know of who is likely to undertake such a situation. I state this not on the supposition of yr being a finished Naturalist, but as amply qualified for collecting, observing, & noting anything worthy to be noted in Natural History. Peacock has the appointment at his disposal & if he can not find a man willing to take the office, the opportunity will probably be lost. Capt. F wants a man (I understand) more as a companion than a mere collector & would not take any one however good a Naturalist who was not recommended to him likewise as a gentleman. Particulars of salary &c I know nothing. The Voyage is to last 2 yrs & if you take plenty of Books with you, any thing you please may be done – You will have ample opportunities at command – In short I suppose there never was a finer chance for a man of zeal & spirit. Capt. F is a young man. What I wish you to do is instantly to come to Town & consult with Peacock (at No 7 Suffolk Street Pall Mall East or else at the University Club) & learn further particulars. Don’t put on any modest doubts or fears about your disqualifications for I assure you I think you are the very man they are in search of – so conceive yourself to be tapped on the Shoulder by your Bum-Bailiff* & affecte friend /J.S. Henslow42

This letter was reinforced in similar terms two days later by another from Peacock. Although both Peacock and Henslow said in their letters that FitzRoy was looking for a naturalist, it is evident that at some point in FitzRoy’s original conversation with Beaufort a geologist had been mentioned, for Henslow’s candidate for the post was described by FitzRoy himself as ‘Mr. Charles Darwin, grandson of Dr. Darwin the poet, a young man of promising ability, extremely fond of geology, and indeed all branches of natural history.’43 That FitzRoy thought he was primarily getting a geologist would be consistent with his gift to Charles on their departure from Plymouth of the first volume of Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology. Moreover in his first report to the Royal Geographical Society on the Beagle’s return to England in 1836 he said that ‘Mr Charles Darwin will make known the results of his five years’ voluntary seclusion and disinterested exertions in the cause of science. Geology has been his principal pursuit.’

CHAPTER 3

Preparations for the Voyage

Charles arrived back in Shrewsbury on Monday, 29 August from his trip in North Wales with Sedgwick, and was given Peacock’s and Henslow’s letters by his sisters. His immediate and joyful reaction was to accept, but finding next morning that his father was strongly opposed to the scheme, he wrote sorrowfully to Henslow:

Mr Peacock’s letter arrived on Saturday, & I received it late yesterday evening. As far as my own mind is concerned, I should think, certainly most gladly have accepted the opportunity, which you so kindly have offered me. But my Father, although he does not decidedly refuse me, gives such strong advice against going, that I should not be comfortable if I did not follow it. My Fathers objections are these: the unfitting me to settle down as a clergyman; my little habit of seafaring; the shortness of the time & the chance of my not suiting Captain Fitzroy. It is certainly a very serious objection, the very short time for all my preparations, as not only body but mind wants making up for such an undertaking. But if it had not been for my father, I would have taken all risks … Even if I was to go, my Father disliking would take away all energy, & I should want a good stock of that. Again I must thank you; it adds a little to the heavy, but pleasant load of gratitude which I owe to you.44

A letter in similar terms that he also wrote to Peacock has not survived.

All was not lost, however, for Robert had recognised the considerable compliment that had been paid to his son by the two eminent academics in Cambridge, and tempered his disapproval by telling Charles, ‘If you can find any man of common sense who advises you to go, I will give my consent.’ He well knew who that man might be, and wrote to Josiah Wedgwood II on 30 August: ‘Charles will tell you of the offer he has had made to him of going for a voyage of discovery for 2 years. – I strongly object to it on various grounds, but I will not detail my reasons that he may have your unbiassed opinion on the subject, & if you feel differently from me I shall wish him to follow your advice.’45