The Journal of a Voyage in HMS Beagle
by Charles Darwin

Foreword by HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales

No such air had been evident five years earlier, when Charles Darwin had accepted the post of unpaid naturalist aboard the Beagle on a round-the-world surveying voyage.

In view of Charles's attitude both to his studies at Cambridge and to his future clerical appointment, Robert Darwin at first strongly opposed acceptance of the Beagle offer. Yet the proposed expedition was to enable Darwin to discover his true vocation. In the Bay of Good Success, some 8,000 miles from home, he dedicated his life to Natural History; and recorded the modest hope that he would be able 'to add a little' to the science.

During his momentous voyage, Darwin made a series of observations that led him seriously to question, for the first time, the literal truth of the Bible.

The Galapagos Islands were to provide the most illuminating experience of that long voyage. Each island, though only 50-odd miles from its neighbours, had its own species: 'This appears to be one of those admirable provisions of Infinite Wisdom by which each created thing is adapted to the place for which it was intended.'

Covering the pages of his Journal in that tiny, cramped cabin, Charles Darwin brought forth the outlines of a theory that was to shake the thinking world.

The Journal of a Voyage in HMS Beagle is a facsimile of the original Journal in Darwin's own handwriting. By kind permission of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Genesis took the original document (held at Down House, Kent) to the Cambridge University Library where, with infinite care and skill, it was disbound by library staff. Thence it went to Richmond for photography of each page under the supervision of Philip Titheradge, Custodian of Down House. After each day's photographic session, the Journal was deposited in the vaults of the local bank.

The facsimile is half-bound in dark-green calf-leather with decorative brasses and gold tooling and is limited to 500 numbered copies. The authoritative Introduction is written by Professor R. D. Keynes, ScD, FRS and each copy is signed by George Darwin, great grandson of Charles Darwin.

ISBN: 0 904351 122
Price: £795 plus shipping