Some Notes about this Document

What this document contains -
This document blends the Darwin and FitzRoy narratives of the second survey mission of H.M.S. Beagle, and provides detailed illustrations of the route taken by the Beagle, and of Darwin's inland treks during the voyage. As far as I know, this is the first time a presentation of the Beagle Voyage has been given in this amount of detail.

The documents used to create this part of the website include:

Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836, Volume 1.
King, Capt. Phillip Parker. New York: AMS Press, 1966.

Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836, Volume 2.
FitzRoy, Capt. Robert. New York: AMS Press, 1966.

Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836, (appendix to Volume 2).
FitzRoy, Capt. Robert. New York: AMS Press, 1966.

Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836, Volume 3.
Darwin, Charles. New York: AMS Press, 1966.

The Autobiography of Charles Darwin and Selected Letters.
Darwin, Francis. (editor) (Charles Darwin's son)
New York: Dover Publications, 1958. (a reprint of the 1892 edition by D. Appleton Publishers, New York)

The Autobiography of Charles Darwin.
Barlow, Nora. (editor) (Charles Darwin's grand-daughter).
New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993. (1958 reprint)

Charles Darwin's Beagle Diary.
Keynes, Richard Darwin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

The Correspondence of Charles Darwin: 1821-1836 (vol-1).
Burkhardt, F., and Smith, S et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

The Sailing Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy, Built, Purchased and Captured 1688-1860. Lyon, David. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1993.

H.M.S. Beagle, Survey Ship Extraordinary.
Marquardt, Karl Heinz. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1997.

The Admiralty Chart: British Naval Hydrography in the Nineteenth Century.
Ritchie, Rear Admiral G.S., C.B., D.S.C. (Hydrographer of the Navy 1966-1971).
Edinburgh, Cambridge, Durham, USA: The Pentland Press, 1995 (reprint of the 1967 edition).

HMS Beagle, The Story of Darwin's Ship.
Thomson, Keith Stewart. New York, London: W.W. Norton, 1995.

FitzRoy and Darwin: The Odd Couple.
Thomson, Keith. American Scientist, Vol. 83 May-June (1995), pages 224 - 227.

H.M.S. Beagle, 1820-1870.
Thomson, Keith. American Scientist, (1975), pages 664 - 672.

From Sails to Satellites: The Origin and Development of Navigational Science.
Williams, J.E.D. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Dealing with place names -
Place names are indicated using known spellings that were contemporary to the early 1830's, except where otherwise noted. This was done for the sake of clarity, as both Capt. FitzRoy and Darwin often spelled place names incorrectly in their narratives, sometimes giving several miss-spellings for the same place.

How route lines were plotted -
The route lines for H.M.S. Beagle were created using Capt. FitzRoy's longitude and latitude data from the "Abstract of Meteorological Journal" in the appendix to his narrative of the voyage. In those sections where no data is provided in the Abstract the most logical course was selected based of previous and later data in the Abstract. The routes of Darwin's inland treks were created using his personal narrative and those sections of FitzRoy's narrative where he and Darwin traveled together. In a few instances Darwin is quite vague in describing the path he took on his various treks. In such cases a logical route was plotted, taking into consideration the terrain, location of sites, locations of roads as they existed in the time, and areas of geological interest.

About the Darwin letters -
During the Beagle voyage Darwin kept up a correspondence with family and friends back home in England, particularly with his sisters, who were a never ending source of gossip. Transcriptions of these letters can be found in the Correspondence of Charles Darwin Vol. 1 (see Credits Section for bibliographic details). References to these letters are made as follows:

"(CCD, 1:104)"

CCD = Correspondence of Charles Darwin.
1 = Volume One.
104 = The Calendar Number as indicated in the "Calendar of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin." A listing of these numbers is provided at the beginning of Correspondence Vol. 1 and can be used to look up the transcribed letter in the text.

The Darwin Correspondence Project, in Cambridge England, is currently engaged in publishing all the known letters to and from Charles Darwin. They have an excellent website, and a link to it can be found in the Links Section.

About the "Darwin Discovery" sections -
The Darwin's Discovery sections provide a running commentary on the observations Darwin made during the Beagle Voyage that would later influence his thinking on geology, paleontology, and evolution. Perhaps more importantly, these sections provide a glimpse at the embryonic stages of Darwin's thoughts on the transmutation of species.

Editorial comments -
Text inside brackets "[ ]" are editorial insertions.