[page] 755

His Majesty's Sloop Beagle, Captain Fitzroy, has arrived and is now lying paid off at Woolwich. The Beagle sailed from England in 1831, for the purpose of surveying the coasts of South America; on which service she has been employed since that time, and on her way home has performed the circuit of the globe. She has successively visited the Galapagos, Tahiti, Tongataboo, New Zealand, Sydney, King George's Sound, Keeling Island, Mauritius, Cape of Good Hope, and other parts of the Atlantic, between which she has measured meridian distances. In the course of her voyage, observations of the most valuable and interesting kind have been made, and additions afforded to our knowledge of the natural history of the places she visited, by Mr. Charles Darwin, which will ever reflect the greatest credit on him, and on Captain Fitzroy who conducted the voyage.