Summary

His first letter to JSH since December. Recounts his seasickness, geologising and marine collecting at St Jago [Santiago, Cape Verde Is.]; his first tropical forest. Collecting small insects from the tropics. His Welsh trip with Sedgwick has been extremely valuable.

Summary

CD’s enjoyment of the beauty of the tropics is worth all the misery of seasickness. His mail gave him great pleasure. For two weeks he will visit a large estate in the country, and on return live at Botofogo for some weeks, collecting and learning to know the tropics.

Summary

Regrets leaving the tropics, despite interest in a land where Europeans have never been. They have experienced political turmoil at Montevideo. Natural history going well.

Summary

Writes with great happiness about the first part of the voyage, after his misery from seasickness passed. He finds himself well prepared, the ship quiet, comfortable, and compact; he has already a "rich harvest" and finds the natural history (especially geology) exceedingly interesting. The tropics are full of great beauty.

Summary

Sketches the Beagle’s travels – Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, cruise to the south and return – and what the future holds. Writes with nostalgia of England and says he sees no end to the voyage.

He enjoys and has been lucky principally in geology and among pelagic animals; has found remains of large extinct animals.

Summary

Summarises experiences since leaving England. "How intimately what may be called the ""moral part"" is connected with the enjoyment of scenery." The loneliness of the voyage.

Summary

His trip to the interior was full of interest, but exhausting physically. Expects to stay at least a fortnight at Botofogo, because the Beagle returns to Bahia to correct a difference in the longitude measurements. Writes of his companions, of FitzRoy, and of his journal – which he has sent home.

Summary

Specimens being sent off. Describes his collection of rocks, plants, and insects. Some particularly interesting specimens.

Summary

Tells of the family’s pleasure in reading CD’s first two letters and his journal.

Comments on Shrewsbury politics, the cholera, and the family. Sedgwick calls often; Catherine thinks he is interested in Susan.

Summary

A French collector [Alcide d’Orbigny] has been at the Rio Negro and will probably have "taken the cream". CD’s luck with fossil bones, among them a large extinct armadillo-like animal. Describes some birds, toads, Crustacea, and other marine specimens. Nearly all plants flowering at Bahia Blanca were collected. Is sending two large casks of fossil bones by packet.