her was rough the "Flycatcher" was sick, much to the
delight of Wickham; but if the ship was becalmed, Darwin came out and
gloried in the sunshine, and in his work of dissecting, labeling, and
writing memoranda and data. The sailors might curse the weather--he did
not. Thus passed the days. At each stop many specimens were secured, and
these were to be sorted and sifted out at leisure.

On shore the Captain had his work to do, and it was only after a year
that Darwin accidentally discovered that the sailor who was sent to
carry his specimens was always armed with knife and revolver, and his
orders were not so much to carry what Wickham called, "the damned
plunder," as to see that no harm befell the "Flycatcher."

Fitz-Roy's interest in the scientific work was only general: longitude
and latitude, his twenty-four chronometers, his maps and constant
soundings, with minute records, kept his time occupied.

For Darwin and his specimens, however, he had a constantly growing
respect, and when the long five-year trip was ended, Darwin realized
that the gruff and grim Captain was indeed his friend. Captain Fitz-Roy
had trouble with everybody on board in turn, thus proving his
impartiality; but when parting was nigh, tears came to his eyes as he
embraced Darwin, and said, with prophetic yet broken words, "The
'Beagle's' voyage may be remembered more through you than me--I hope it
will be so!" And Darwin, too moved for speech, said nothing except
through the pressure of his hand.

* * * * *

The idea of evolution took a firm hold upon the mind of Darwin, in an
instant, one day while on board the "Beagle." From that very hour the
thought of the mutability of species was the one controlling impulse of
his life.

On his return from the trip around the world he found himself in
possession of an immense mass of specimens and much data bearing
directly upon the point that creation is still going on.

That he could ever sort, sift and formulate his evidence on his own
account, he never at this time imagined. Indeed, about all he thought he
could do was to present his notes and specimens to some scientific
society, in the hope that some of its members would go ahead and use the
material.

With this thought in mind he began to open correspondence with several
of the universities and with various professors of science, and to his
dismay found that no one was willing even to read his notes, much less