DARWIN, Charles. -- R. FITZROY, editor, and P. P. KING . A Narrative of the Surveyin Voyages of...Adventure and Beagle. FIRST EDITION.
4 volumes, including Appendix to vol. II, 8vo (234 x 145 mm). 9 folding maps (6 in rear cover pockets vols. I and II), 47 lithographed plates and views; 16pp. publisher's catalogue dated August, 1839, additional 8pp. publisher's catalogue (undated). Publisher's blind-stamped blue cloth (spines slightly sunned, some light wear to spine ends with minor chipping). FIRST EDITION OF DARWIN'S FIRST PUBLISHED BOOK, second issue of volume III. Described as "one of the most famous journeys ever undertaken," the Admiralty Surveying Expedition of H.M.S. Beagle (1831-1836) carried the 23-year old Charles Darwin as Naturalist and Geologist. It was his observations on the voyage which gave birth to and gradually strengthened his convictions regarding natural selection and evolution. On the first voyage of 1826-1830, King and Fitzroy charted the coasts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, and on the second voyage (1831-1836) further charted the South American and Australian coasts, the Galapagos Islands, New Zealand and Tahiti. Magnetic observations in the appendix are by Edward Sabine who was with both John Ross and William Parry in the Arctic. Darwin's own investigations, most notably in the Galapagos, are fully contained in vol. III, together with his journey up the Parana River and into the Andes towards the Cordillera. He later wrote that this voyage had "been by far the most important event in my life, and has determined my whole career." Expedition artists were Augustus Earle and Conrad Martens from whose drawings many of the engravings were prepared. The difference between the first and second issue is the replacement of the original half-title and title-page (pp. i-iv) with the new title wording, the elimination of the leaf identifying it as Vol III (pp. v-vi), and that the maps are bound-in rather than loose in a front pocket. The earliest appearance of both the first and second issues containing the authors' names on the spines (as on this set). Sets sold later of both issues contain ads of a later date than the present copy (August 1839), or none at all. Freeman 11; Hill 607; Norman 585; Sabin 37826.
