Historedia
AmericasEvent

HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin arrives at South America

When
1832
Where
Bahia, Brazil
Episodes
1

HMS Beagle's second survey expedition departed in December 1831 under Captain Robert FitzRoy, carrying naturalist Charles Darwin. The voyage aimed to survey Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and other South American coasts. Darwin joined as a supernumerary to investigate geology, marking his first arrival in South America during the early months of the expedition.

Episodes

  1. March 1832 · Bahia, BrazilDarwin at Bahia, March 1832

    While at Bahia, Brazil, in March 1832, Darwin was horrified at tales of the treatment of slaves, the earliest sourced South American event of the voyage.

Background and detail

Expedition Context. The second survey expedition of HMS Beagle began on 27 December 1831. Captain Robert FitzRoy sought a naturalist to investigate geology, leading to Charles Darwin's inclusion as a supernumerary. The primary objective was completing surveys of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, commenced earlier by Captain King, while also conducting chronometrical measurements.

Key Figures. Robert FitzRoy, commissioned as commander in June 1831, led the expedition. Charles Darwin, a Cambridge graduate passionate for natural science, joined the voyage. FitzRoy had established his reputation as a surveyor prior to this command, having served on the South American station.

First South American Landfall. In March 1832, while at Bahia, Brazil, Darwin was horrified at tales of the treatment of slaves. This documented episode is the earliest sourced event placing Darwin on the South American continent during the voyage; the passages do not state the ship's arrival date at Bahia or whether it was the first landfall.

People involved

Sources

  1. Second voyage of HMS Beagle Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-28
  2. Charles Darwin Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-02
  3. Robert FitzRoy Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-22

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.