ple in the extreme. This way of putting the matter was most
attractive to Darwin--Fitz-Roy became a hero in his eyes at once. The
Captain's manner inspired much confidence--he was a man who did not have
to be amused or cajoled. "You will be left alone to do your work," said
Fitz-Roy to Darwin, "and I must have the cabin to myself when I ask for
it." And that settled it. Life aboard ship is like life in jail. It
means freedom, freedom from interruption--you have your evenings to
yourself, and the days as well. Darwin admired every man on board the
ship, and most of all, the man who selected them, and so wrote home to
his sisters. He admired the men because each was intent on doing his
work, and each one seemed to assume that his own particular work was
really the most important.

Second Officer Wickham was entrusted to see that the ship was in good
order, and so thorough was he that he once said to Darwin, who was
constantly casting his net for specimens, "If I were the skipper, I'd
soon have you and your beastly belittlement out of this ship with all
your devilish, damned mess." And Darwin, much amused, wrote this down in
his journal, and added, "Wickham is a most capital fellow." The
discipline and system of ship-life, the necessity of working in a small
space, and of improving the calm weather, and seizing every moment when
on shore, all tended to work in Darwin's nature exactly the habit that
was needed to make him the greatest naturalist of his age.

Every sort of life that lived in the sea was new and wonderful to him.
Very early on this trip Darwin began to work on the "Cirripedia"
(barnacles), and we hear of Captain Fitz-Roy obligingly hailing
homeward-bound ships, and putting out a small boat, rowing alongside,
asking politely, to the astonishment of the party hailed, "Would you
oblige us with a few barnacles off the bottom of your ship?" All this
that the Volunteer, who was dubbed the "Flycatcher," might have
something upon which to work.

When on shore a sailor was detailed by Captain Fitz-Roy just to attend
the "Flycatcher," with a bag to carry the specimens, geological,
botanical and zoological, and a cabin-boy was set apart to write notes.
This boy, who afterward became Governor of Queens and a K.C.B., used
in after years to boast a bit, and rightfully, of his share in producing
"The Origin of Species." When urged to smoke, Darwin replied, "I am not
making any new necessities for myself."

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