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Charles Darwin, aged 22, embarks on the HMS Beagle voyage as the ship captain's assistant.
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Darwin is exhilarated by his first observations.
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"We have crossed the Equator, and I have undergone the disagreeable operation of being shaved" - Charles Darwin
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Darwin explores Brazilian Rain forests for the first time.
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Darwin is intrigued by the giant fossils he sees. "I have been wonderfully lucky with fossil bones.
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Captain Robert FitzRoy repatriates three native people he had brought to England on a previous voyage. FitzRoy attempts to start a Christian mission, which fails disastrously.
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Darwin finds the barren, windswept Falkland Islands 'desolate and wretched' .
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Darwin explores the fertile lowland areas, known as Pampas, with the local people or 'gauchos' .
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Darwin sees Mount Osorno while on the island of Chiloe and experiences the earthquake in the woods near Valdivia. Seeing the aftermath of the earthquake affected him tremendously.
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Darwin finds many species of plants, birds, and tortoises unique to the Galapagos Islands,, but they seem mysteriously related to mainland species.
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On arrival in Sydney Cove, Darwin's first feeling was 'to congratulate myself that I was born an Englishman... it is a fine town.
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Darwin studies coral reefs to test his theory of atoll formation.
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'I took a quiet walk along the sea coast to the north of the town; the plain is there quite uncultivated, consisting of a field of black lava smoothed over with coarse grass and bushes, the greater part of which are mimosas, ' observes Darwin.
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' The first object in Cape Town which strikes the eye of a stranger, is the number of bullock wagons... I have as yet not mentioned the well known Table Mountain; the great mass of horizontally stratified sandstone rises quite close behind the town to a height of 3,500 feet' .
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In the jungles of South America, Darwin discovers many incredible creatures.
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' I reached home late last night. My head is quite confused with so much delight. '