Darwin, Charles, Captain Robert Fitzroy, and Captain Philip Parker King.

First edition, 3 volumes bound in 4, including the appendix to volume 2, 8vo (225 x 140mm.), half-titles, 56 engraved plates, maps and charts, 9 folding, addenda leaf at end of volume 2, contemporary half morocco gilt, [Freeman 10; Norman 584], occasional slight foxing, edges rubbed

The official accounts of the voyage of the Beagle. Volume 3 is Darwin's Journal and Remarks, his own account of the Beagle's voyage, and his first published book - it is an outstanding account of natural history exploration which described the fieldwork which ultimately led to On the Origin of Species.

"The five years of the voyage were the most important event in Darwin's intellectual life and in the history of biological science. Darwin sailed with no formal scientific training. He returned a hard-headed man of science, knowing the importance of evidence, almost convinced that species had not always been as they were since the creation but had undergone change... The experiences of his five years... and what they led to, built up into a process of epoch-making importance in the history of thought" (DSB 3:556).

The first volume of the Narrative contains Captain King's account of the expedition in the Adventure between 1826 and 1830, which surveyed the coasts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The second volume and appendix describe the second voyage of the Beagle under Captain Fitzroy between 1831 and 1836, which visited Brazil, Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, Peru, the Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia and other islands and countries.