The Voyage of the Beagle

Robert FitzRoy (1805-1865) was the captain of the HMS Beagle during its second voyage and chose Darwin to be the ship’s scientist. FitzRoy was born on July 5, 1805, in Suffolk, England. He came from a powerfully connected family of sailors and military men, and his father, General Lord Charles FitzRoy, was a wealthy politician. Like the rest of the men in his family, FitzRoy joined the Royal Navy at the age of 12 and was promoted to midshipman when he was just 14 years old.

FitzRoy’s tenure as captain of the HMS Beagle began in 1828 after the Beagle’s first captain, Pringle Stokes, died by suicide near Tierra del Fuego. FitzRoy’s capable leadership in the final year of the Beagle’s first journey established his reputation as a captain, and he was reappointed as captain of the Beagle in 1831. The death of Pringle Stokes had a profound effect on FitzRoy, who sought to preempt his own mental health struggles by hiring a gentleman scholar to accompany him onboard the Beagle. Charles Darwin, a young naturalist from a well-known family, was the perfect fit for the position.

Throughout the five-year journey, FitzRoy’s relationship with Darwin ebbed and flowed. FitzRoy was a devout Christian, while Darwin’s views on the role of science and religion in society were constantly changing. Darwin and FitzRoy also disagreed about the treatment of enslaved and Indigenous people across South America. This led to tensions between the two men, and they had several disagreements during the voyage. Nevertheless, they maintained a level of mutual respect and continued to work together toward the goals of the expedition.

Although FitzRoy is primarily remembered as the captain of the Beagle, he was himself a pioneer in the field of meteorology, credited with coining the term “forecast” to describe daily weather predictions. He also had a brief, disastrous term as the governor of New Zealand from 1843-1845. Although his military career continued when he returned to the United Kingdom, FitzRoy struggled with money and mental health. He died by suicide on April 30, 1865, leaving his family destitute.

General Juan Manuel de Rosas (1793-1877) was an Argentinian politician and solider whose presence and influence in Argentina shaped Darwin’s understanding of the country as well as of Human Diversity and the Challenges of Cultural Exchange. Born into a wealthy family in Buenos Aires, General Rosas became a military leader at a young age and played a prominent role in the struggle for Argentine independence from Spain. In 1829, he became the governor of Buenos Aires and established a dictatorship that lasted for nearly two decades. His regime was characterized by authoritarianism and the suppression of political opposition.

During Darwin’s 1833 visit to Buenos Aires, Rosas was still consolidating his power and was not yet the all-powerful dictator he would become. Darwin was fascinated by Rosas’s power and influence and wrote extensively about him in his journals. Darwin was struck by the contrast between his personal experience with Rosas and the general’s reputation as a ruthless dictator. Even as he acknowledges General Rosas’s generosity in facilitating his travels through Argentina, he admits that the general’s political actions are “altogether opposed to the constitutional principles of the republic” (136).

General Rosas’s influence on Darwin extended beyond the latter’s time in Buenos Aires. Darwin was interested in the impact of geography and environment on human societies, and he saw Rosas’s Argentina as a prime example of how these factors could shape a nation. Darwin believed that Rosas’s autocratic rule was a response to the unique challenges Argentina’s geography and climate posed.

When General Rosas was ousted from power in 1852, he fled to England, where he was welcomed for his kind treatment of English adventurers such as Darwin. He remained in England for 25 years until his death from pneumonia in 1877.