On October 2, 1836, Charles Darwin returned to Falmouth, Cornwall in England after five long years at sea. On his return, he found himself to be a celebrity in scientific circles, thanks to the efforts of his mentor and friend John Steven Henslow, who distributed Darwin’s geological letters to certain select naturalists. Darwin went home to see his relatives and then hurried to meet Henslow, who advised him to find naturalists to catalogue his collections and botanical specimens. Darwin’s father even went to the extent of organising investments so that his son would be self-funded and independent.
Journey of discovery
In 1831, Henslow proposed Darwin to be a suitable naturalist for a self-funded extra position on the HMS Beagle . The same year, on December 17, the ship set sail. Darwin kept meticulous notes of his investigations on land and collected many natural history specimens. At regular intervals, these notes and observations were sent to Henslow at Cambridge. Although he had some level of expertise in geology, beetle collecting and dissecting marine invertebrates, in other matters he was relatively ignorant. However, that did not stop him. He collected specimens for expert appraisal.
Darwin’s observation during the journey was of great interest. At his first stop at St. Jago in Cape Verde, Darwin found that a white band high in the volcanic rock cliffs included seashells. This seemed to prove right the theory of land slowly rising or falling over immense periods of time, as stated in Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology . The sight of the tropical forests in Brazil caused in him a great sense of excitement. However, the slavery that persisted bothered him as well. All along the way, Darwin was amazed at his findings. He discovered fossil bones of huge extinct mammals. He identified the Megatherium (a genus of elephant-sized ground sloths) by a tooth and its association with the bony armour.
On the Galapagos Islands, Darwin was on the look out for evidence that attached wildlife to an older “centre of creation”. He found mockingbirds, almost like those in Chile but with slight differences. He also learnt that small differences in the shape of tortoise shells showed which island they came from. Another amazing ‘find’ were the marsupial rat-kangaroo and the platypus that were so very different, he thought it was almost possible that “two distinct Creators had been at work”.
While on the journey back home, he organised his notes and wrote, “…facts seemed to throw some light on the origin of species.”
A remarkable journey indeed, as it brought with it a different line of thought about the how the world began.
