ung man was not
adapted to the life of a physician. The next move was to educate him
for the church, and for this purpose, at the age of nineteen, he went
to Cambridge. Here it soon appeared that he was no better adapted to
the ministry than he was to the practice of medicine, and his
university career went on in very desultory fashion. Most of his work
was distinctly neglected, but two of the men he met there were to
influence largely his future life. Henslow, the botanist, was
unusually fond, for a professor in those days, of work in the field.
Charles Darwin's tastes coincided with those of Henslow, with whom he
formed an intimate friendship. He was always welcomed as a companion
on the field trips. Though he studied little of botany in the
classroom or laboratory, he was constantly with Henslow or with
Sedgwick in the field. Sedgwick was the professor of geology, and of
him Darwin was particularly fond, and under him did much the largest
amount of his study. When he came up for graduation he ranked tenth of
those who "did not go in for honors," a not very remarkable class
standing. He was still required to put in two years of residence, and
during this interval he spent most of his time with Sedgwick in the
study of geology in the field. Returning to his home after a
geological trip into Wales, Darwin found awaiting him a letter from
Henslow, offering him an appointment that opened to his ardent mind
the door to a career after his own heart.

The British nation, being the greatest commercial nation of the globe,
has the greatest need for accurate charts of all the seas. Frequently
she has sent out great charting expeditions to various parts of the
world. One of these was to go out in Her Majesty's ship, _Beagle_, for
a voyage around the world. Captain Fitzroy was in command, and he was
especially commissioned to map the coast of South America from La
Plata to Cape Horn and up the western side. In addition to this work,
by carrying a set of accurate chronometers, he was to check up the
longitude of the various ports to be visited in this circumnavigation
of the globe. It was customary on such expeditions to carry a young
man whose duty it was to study the natural history of the countries
visited on the trip. The salary of such a naturalist was so small that
an experienced man could scarcely afford to take the place. Therefore
the appointment usually went to a man rather of promise than of
achievement. Through Henslo