First edition, this is the official account of the voyages of the Beagle, the full narrative of one of the greatest marine surveys of the 19thcentury, and one of the most important voyages of exploration for the history of science.
The work is divided in three parts, plus an appendix, all finely illustrated and accompanied by maps of the route and places visited. The first volume contains Captain King’s account of the expedition (May 1826- October 1830) and survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The second volume and appendix describe the second voyage of the Beagle, this time under the command of Fitzroy (December 1831 – October 1836), which visited Chile, Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia and other parts of the Pacific; it was a voyage of circumnavigation, in which Darwin accompanied in the position of naturalist. Finally, the third volume is Darwin’s own account of the Beagle’s voyage and his first published book, it is a remarkable work, which describes the fieldwork that served as basis for his On the Origin of Species and the theory of evolution.
“The voyage of the ‘Beagle’ has been by far the most important event in my life, and has determined my whole career" (Life and Letters, 1:61).
“The five years of the voyage were the most important event in Darwin’s intellectual life and in the history of biological sciences. Darwin sailed with no formal scientific training. He returned a hard-headed man of science, knowing the importance of evidence, almost convinced that species had not always been as they were since the creation but had undergone change. He also developed doubts of the value of the Scriptures as a trustworthy guide to the history of the earth and of man, with the result that he gradually became an agnostic. The experiences of his five years in the Beagle, how he dealt with them, and what they led to, built up into a process of epoch-making importance in the history of thought.” (D.S.B., III, p. 566).
Provenance: Kenneth E. Hill copy, his bookplate on front pastedown, collector of Pacific voyages, his collection is considered one of the finest of its kind, and his descriptions of the books that formed it are now standard bibliography; it is now in the University of California, San Diego; the third volume bears the bookplate and signature, dated 1840, of Robert James Shuttleworth (1810-74), the famous botanist and conchologist.
Freeman, Darwin 10 & 11; Borba de Moraes p.247; Hill (2004) 607; Norman 584; Sabin 37826.
