Charles Darwins voyage on the HMS Beagle is a gripping adventure story & a turning point in the making of the modern world. Brought together here in chronological order the letters he wrote & received during his trip provide a first-hand account of a voyage of discovery that was as much personal as intellectual. We follow Darwins adventures as he prepares for his travels lands on his first tropical island watches an earthquake level a city & learns how to catch ostriches from a running horse. We witness slavery political revolution & epidemic disease & share the otherworldly experience of landing on the Galapagos Islands & collecting specimens. His letters are counterpoised by replies from family & friends that record a comfortable intimate world back in Engl&. Original watercolours by the ships artist Conrad Martens vividly bring to life Darwins descriptions of his travels.