'pleasures in prospect': an introduction to the Cape de Verds Notebook

The Cape de Verds Notebook is the first of Darwin's Beagle field notebooks, and therefore contains his very first observations from places never before visited by a naturalist. Right from the opening pages the notebook is a rapidly written torrent of calculations, geological sections, measurements of angles, temperatures, barometer readings, compass bearings, diagrams and sketches. As such it is an extraordinary document, which vividly records how in the initial weeks and months of the voyage Charles Darwin was maturing from a mere trainee into an accomplished geologist who would need to be taken seriously.

The notebook can be said to cover the first half year of the voyage, although it overlaps in April 1832 with the second notebook, Rio. The first dated entry in the Cape de Verds Notebook is for 18 January 1832, three weeks after the Beagle left England, and the last is for 10 June 1832. The notebook therefore covers his birthday in February when a very seasick Darwin turned twenty-three.

Cape Verdes, January 1832

Cape de Verds Notebook deals firstly with the volcanic Cape Verde Islands [Republica de Cabo Verde] where, as Darwin later realised, the animals and plants bear a close relationship to those of the neighbouring continent of Africa. When visiting the volcanic Galapagos Islands three and a half years later, he saw for himself how the animals and plants there were different from those in the Cape Verdes, yet obviously bore an identical relationship to those on the neighbouring continent of South America (see introduction to the Galapagos Notebook). The significance of these relationships became clearer to Darwin in the months leading up to his return visit to the Cape Verdes in September 1836, as he pondered why these otherwise similar volcanic archipelagos were populated by such different animals and plants.

The Beagle arrived in the Cape Verdes on 16 January 1832, after 21 days at sea, and spent 21 days in the islands. In his Autobiography, written for his children and grandchildren forty four years later, Darwin recalls how 'the very first place which I examined, namely St Jago [now Sao Tiago] in the Cape Verde Islands, showed me clearly the wonderful superiority of Lyell’s manner of treating geology, compared with that of any other author, whose work I had with me or ever afterwards read.' (Autobiography, p. 77). Darwin had immediately plunged himself into theory, lapping up the first volume of Charles Lyell’s highly important new book Principles of Geology (1830) and being incapable of observing without testing explanations for what he saw.

Much has been written about Darwin’s geologizing at St Jago, most recently and in most detail by Pearson and Nicholas 2007 and by Herbert 2005 who devotes a whole section of her book to his collecting and recording of sections and specimens and provides photographs of these actual specimens, which can be seen today at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge. Herbert explains how the young Darwin fell hook, line and sinker for Lyell’s method of geological interpretation, which is based on a deep understanding of processes of change observable at the Earth’s surface today (erosion, earthquakes, volcanoes etc.) a method known as actualism (though usually referred to as Uniformitarianism - a term with more complex connotations). Darwin applied the method to unraveling the islands’ recent volcanic past, especially in relation to Quail Island [Santa Maria] and Flag Staff [=Signal Post] Hill. There a band of limestone exposed in a cliff and obviously composed of marine fossil material and now elevated well above sea level, provided a clear signal of the ups and downs of the Earth’s crust, just as Lyell had said. This section of the notebook is quoted in Keynes’s edition of Darwin’s Beagle Diary (1988, p. 25 note 1).

We can almost hear Darwin hammering away at the cliff and muttering to himself excitedly as he jotted down a geological section on the very first page of Cape de Verds Notebook (p.1b). Having been bitterly disappointed at not being able to go ashore at the Canaries - to see for himself the wonderful sights described there by Baron Humboldt and dreamed of in Cambridge - Darwin was ecstatic to find that his geological skills were good enough for him to understand almost immediately what he was seeing in the Cape Verdes.

Darwin’s field training the previous summer in North Wales with the Reverend Professor Adam Sedgwick, combined with his reading of Lyell and what he was seeing with his own eyes intoxicated him with the realisation that he too could become a geologist. Again in his Autobiography he flashes back to the moment he first imagined his own geological book: 'That was a memorable hour to me, and how distinctly I can call to mind the low cliff of lava beneath which I rested, with the sun glaring hot, a few strange desert plants growing near and with living corals in the tidal pools at my feet.' (Autobiography, p. 81). Perhaps Darwin had Cape de Verds Notebook next to him at Down House, as he wrote these words in 1876.

In the long run Darwin’s Lyellian conversion was perhaps unfortunate for the Reverend Professor John Henslow, who recommended Darwin to take a copy of Lyell’s book with him, and who acted as his scientific champion before and during the voyage. (In fact it was Captain FitzRoy who gave Darwin a copy of Lyell's book, a gesture which says a great deal about their relationship). Henslow might have taken the Captain’s offer of a place onboard himself if domestic commitments had not prevented him, and may in some ways have regretted that Darwin’s experiences on the voyage eventually turned him away from the traditional theory of the Earth's history as a series of cataclysms. Henslow had, after all, asked Darwin to read Lyell’s book, but ‘on no account to accept the views therein advocated’. (Autobiography, p. 101)

When Darwin revisited the Cape Verdes in September 1836, he struck through parts of his foolscap 1832 geology notes from the islands (now in DAR32), especially their discussion of "the long disputed Diluvium" [i.e. deposits which some, like Sedgwick and FitzRoy took to be relics of the Noachian flood], and we can judge from this the extent of his increased commitment to Lyell’s actualistic methodology. This methodology was to remain a cornerstone of Darwin’s own for the rest of his life. He had seen (and experienced) enough evidence of the forces at work on the Earth’s surface fully to accept Lyell’s explanations. For further discussion of Diluvium see the introduction to the B. Blanca Notebookand Herbert 2005, p. 397 note 59.

Although Darwin accepted Lyell’s actualistic methodology, he came to reject Lyell’s uncompromising belief in a steady state or non-directional (‘uniformitarian’) Earth history. In the second volume of Lyell's book, which Darwin read at the end of 1832, Lyell argued, applying actualism, that since no-one had ever seen a new species appear by natural means the origin of species must be some sort of supernatural process. Since new species seemed to appear regularly in the strata to replace those which became extinct (to maintain his steady state Earth), there must be ‘centres of creation’ to explain the appearance of new species in new environments. Darwin had by 1836 realised that the fact that the plants and animals on the Cape Verdes were of an African cast was because that is where they had originated. Any Cape Verde ‘centre of creation’ was a fiction.

It is not necessary to elaborate all the fascinating details in the notebook, since Pearson and Nicholas 2007 have provided a detailed analysis of Darwin's work in the Cape Verdes. We should, however, draw attention to the diagram on the inside front cover, showing how FitzRoy had used his sextant to help Darwin calculate the height of a Baobob tree. A very similar diagram occurs in Darwin’s Diary entry for 20 January reproduced in Keynes’s edition (1988, p. 29) and the accomplished sketch on p. 5a is far too good to be by Darwin, and is almost certainly the one Darwin mentioned in his Diary as by FitzRoy. We must also mention the references on pp.10a and 40b to Robert McCormick, the Beagle’s surgeon (the role normally doubling with naturalist). We should also point out the first known use by Darwin of his wonderful word ‘entangled’ on p. 17b (see Herbert 2005, p. 397 note 7). This word, most famously, is evocatively used in the last paragraph of the Origin of Species (1859).

St Paul's Rocks, February 1832

From the Cape Verdes the Beagle crossed the equator and called at St Paul’s Rocks [Penados de Sao Pedro e Sao Paulo] on 16 February. There Darwin could immediately see that the Rocks were not volcanic (see Armstrong 2004). The Rocks are in fact still of great geological interest since unlike almost all oceanic islands they are indeed non-volcanic and Darwin’s specimens are still valued for this reason today (see Barlow 1967, p. 54, and Herbert 2005, p. 116). On p. 77b Darwin compared a gneiss rock he saw on St Paul's to one from Bahia, and on p. 49b he notes the layer of St Paul's ‘dung’ [guano] which coats the rocks there, which he later described in his Volcanic islands p. 45. As Darwin himself pointed out perhaps the geology of St Paul’s Rocks had no place in a book about volcanic islands.

Fernando de Noronha, February 1832

The Beagle was to remain almost entirely in the southern hemisphere for the next four and a half years. She next called briefly at the island of Fernando de Noronha, which appeared to be based around a plug of volcanic rock, on 20 February (see p. 44b). The lichen mentioned on p. 45b is recorded as Darwin’s dry specimen 309 'from the highest peak of F. Noronha' (see Keynes 2000, p. 372; Armstrong 2004) . He jotted a note on p.53b wondering if the lack of active volcanoes on the Atlantic side of South American indicated 'no volcanic influence East of Andes!'

The wonderfully evocative line from p. 46b quoted in our general introduction is from the sea passage south after this stop, and is dated 25 February. The title of this introduction is taken from that passage. The following ten pages of the notebook seem to be reflections on previously seen geology, with Darwin exercising his strengthening theoretical muscles while cruising at sea.

Bahia, March 1832

The Beagle was next stationed for 19 days at Bahia [Salvador] where for the first time, at the end of February, Darwin experienced the natural beauties of the tropics. There are many snippets in the notebook which give a hint of his intoxication with it all and which are developed in classic pages from his Diary. Many of these he published to great acclaim in his Journal of Researches in 1839, or have since been published in the letters he wrote home (see Correspondence vol. 1). In Bahia, another location he revisited in 1836, Darwin had his first taste of the New World proper. Here for the first time he encountered the ‘Primitive’ [i.e. ancient] igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Brazilian continent (see for example p. 56b), albeit covered with the more recent ‘Diluvium’ (Pearson 1996). On p. 72b he switches finally to 'gen[eral] obs[ervations', i.e. not geology, describing a delightful interaction with some apparently aggressive ants, and attempting a sketch of a spider’s web.

Occasionally in the notebooks Darwin recorded when he did not feel well or when something happened which may be a clue to the illness which afflicted him in later life. While in Bahia he was 'confined to my hammock for eight days by a prick on the knee, becoming much inflamed' (letter to his sister Caroline of 2-6 April 1832; see Correspondence vol. 1, p. 218). There is, however, no mention of this in the notebook.

Abrohlos Islets, April 1832

The Beagle left Bahia on 18 March for a cruise down to Rio where she arrived, via an examination of the Abrohlos islets, on A4pril. We have a dramatic demonstration of the enduring value to Darwin of his field notebooks in the letter he wrote to Humboldt in 1839 (Correspondence vol. 2, p. 239) in which he copies out the depths and temperatures of the sea off the Abrohlos from p. 13a of the notebook. He expanded on this in his section on Rio in South America, p. 142-4).

Rio de Janeiro, April-June1832

There is a letter from Darwin to his second cousin William Fox, dated May 1832 and today preserved at their old Cambridge College, Christ’s. In it Darwin tries to convey his excitement at geologizing: 'it is like the pleasure of gambling, speculating on first arriving what the rocks may be; I often mentally cry out 3 to one Tertiary against primitive, but the latter have hitherto won all the bets.' (Correspondence vol. 1, p. 232).

Henslow received a letter from Darwin written in Rio on 18 May 1832 from which he read extracts (together with extracts from other letters from Darwin) to the Cambridge Philosophical Society in November 1835. These were printed into a pamphlet dated 1 December 1835 which was Darwin’s first true scientific publication (Darwin 1835a). Henslow sent copies to Darwin’s father and these had the affect of convincing Dr Darwin that his son would one day make a handsome return on his father’s investment in the voyage. The pamphlet also ensured that by the end of the voyage Darwin would already be known and would be granted a seat at the high table of the British scientific establishment. Darwin first learnt of the pamphlet in a letter from his sister Catherine which he did not receive until June 1836. He was at first horrified by the news as he would have preferred the chance to check the extracts for accuracy, but quickly realised that this was a minor issue: 'after reading this letter I clambered over the mountains of Ascension with a bounding step and made the volcanic rocks resound under my geological hammer!' (Autobiography p. 82).

In Rio Darwin was finally able to settle down for a period of three months, partly as an unplanned bonus from the Beagle's needing to return north to Bahia to check a longitude discrepancy (see Correspondence vol. 1, p. 227. It was while the Beagle was away that three of Darwin's ship-mates, including the very young Charles Musters, died of malaria). The last entries in Cape de Verds Notebook, from about p. 76b, were made in Rio, as Darwin started to collect new species of animals and plants as well as rock samples (see the excellent summaries of his zoological and botanical collecting from Rio provided by Barlow, Keynes, Porter, Smith, Steinheimer and others and all available on Darwin Online). These Rio entries overlap with the Rio Notebook which deals with Darwin’s famous excursion to the plantation where he encountered the realities of the slave trade.

On p. 84b there is the following extraordinary entry:

Scale in nature amongst spiders kept up by hymenop[tera] in absence of Carab[id beetles] supported by the Ants. - may after been less of insects & caterpillars

While this entry is certainly rather obscure, it does seem to be a musing on the Scala Naturae, or 'Great Chain of Being', an idea with origins in Aristotle and much discussed in the eighteenth century. The 'scale of nature' has God at the top and a heirarchy descending down through men to 'brutes', then 'useful insects' such as spiders and bees, above 'unpleasant creatures' such as flies and beetles and so on downwards to the mineral kingdom. What Darwin may have been saying here is that in the absence of beetles perhaps ants (which are hymenoptera although obviously of less 'use' than other hymenoptera such as bees) support the spiders. We cannot, however, be sure what Darwin meant concerning the 'insects & caterpillars'. The key verbs seem to be 'kept up by' and 'supported by' and there is a curious echo in these phrases of following, extremely radical speculation from Darwin's B Notebook, written sometime around November 1837: 'If all men were dead, then monkeys make men. - Men make angels' (p. 169).

At the risk of reading too much into the entry, it is also possible to read it as implying a belief in the 'principle of plenitude', that is a belief that nature is always as 'fully stocked' with types of animals as it possibly can be. This idea, which Darwin imbibed before the voyage from the natural theologians such as Paley and after the start of the voyage from Lyell's first volume, was an important part of Darwin's world view at this time. In this way Darwin may have been speculating that in the 'absence' of beetles, say, ants will 'rise up' to fill the vacancy. As is well known, this belief that there is a limit to the life which any given environment can support, is an essential component of the theory of natural selection. Thus it may be that this entry is one of the first, albeit implicit, hints of Darwin's nascent view of nature as war, in which each individual must do what it can to survive and pass on offspring to the next generation.

The last lines in the notebook, on p. 85b and dated June 10th, are among of the most poetic and beautiful Darwin ever wrote.

Gordon Chancellor

August 2008

Darwin, C. R. 'Cape de Verds Fernando Noronha Bahia, Abrohlos Rio de Janeiro City' (1-6.1832). Beagle field notebook. Text EH1.4

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