[SOUTH AMERICA] South America West Coast…

Very rare first edition, dated 15th September 1853 of this Hydrographic chart number 1283 of the Peruvian coast surveyed by Captain Robert Fitzroy and the officers of H.M.S. Beagle on their second voyage in 1836. The voyage was notable for the inclusion of the naturalist Charles Darwin who during the voyage began forming his scientific theories on evolution and natural selection. The chart extends from Pescadores Point in the north to Cape Lobos in the south.

Darwin spent most of his five years of the voyage exploring on land: three years and three months land, 18 months at sea. Early in the voyage, Darwin decided that he could write a geology book. At Punta Alta in Argentina, he made a major find of gigantic fossils of extinct mammals, then known from very few specimens. He collected and made detailed observations of plants and animals. His findings undermined his belief in the doctrine that species are fixed, and provided the basis for ideas which came to him when back in England, leading to his theory of evolution by natural selection.