They learn from a garbled report in the Times that CD’s specimens have arrived in Cambridge.

William Clift, at Royal College of Surgeons, delighted by CD’s letter about the bones that were sent to Plymouth.

Strange coincidence that Royal College of Surgeons has the front portion and CD has sent home the remainder of a skull, of which a drawing can now be completed.

Other news of family and friends.

Thanks for her letter of March, which gave him his first explanation of the interest in the [Megatherium] head he had sent.

Wants E. A. Darwin to tell William Clift not to remove numbers or markers on any specimens. The British Museum has first claim on any of his specimens; CD cannot at present say where any should go.

News of family and friends.

Word that William Clift thinks CD’s latest fossils are of much value.

Became ill two weeks before on his return from Santiago after an interesting trip and some geology – though snow kept him out of the Andes. FitzRoy has had to sell the schooner; he was discouraged by the Admiralty, and the expense was too much for him to bear personally.

Has sent all of CD’s directions to William Clift.

Erasmus has been very ill, but is now quite safe and well again. Caroline and Susan are with him.

They have heard FitzRoy is promoted and the Beagle is coming home.

Concerned over CD’s illness. His father strongly urges him to come home lest his health be ruined.

News of family and friends.

Twelve Tories elected in Shropshire.

Definite plans now to leave Valparaiso 1 June and to arrive in Sydney in January; then Cape of Good Hope and home in September 1836.

Describes Concepción after earthquake.

Will cross the Cordilleras. Hopes snow will hold off.

Urges him to return home. News of family and friends; the Langtons will go to Rio in April and then winter in the West Indies. Henslow has a son.

Describes his trip from Coquimbo to Copiapò, where he rejoined the Beagle – a hard and wearisome journey, but geologically interesting.

FitzRoy piloted the [Blonde] to rescue crew of wrecked Challenger.

CD has received letters that were missing, and others; for ten months there will be none to or from him.

At sea 25 days from Galapagos to Tahiti, where they stayed ten days. It was delightful. Then three weeks to New Zealand, where they will be for ten days.

Convinced of high merit of missionaries.

Dislikes Augustus Earle’s book.

CD’s fame is spreading: she quotes Henslow ["Letters to Professor Henslow" (1835), Collected papers 1: 3–16], and a passage in the Athenæum.

Adds news of family and friends.

News of friends and family.

Keeling Islands, his first coral lagoons; he has been occupied with subject of coral formation for six months.

Very busy at sea rewriting old geological notes. Has difficulties with writing.

FitzRoy has proposed joint account of the journey, combining CD’s journal with his own.

Looks forward with anxiety to Henslow’s reaction to the geological notes.

In five days of geologising on St Helena, he found that the shells on high land had been mistakenly identified as seashells. They are land shells, but of species no longer living.

Can think of nothing but the return to England and his family.

Last four days have been spent calling on naturalists. Geologists have been kind, but zoologists seem to think a number of undescribed creatures a nuisance.

Will send his belongings to Cambridge, but eventually his quarters must be London.

FitzRoy is to be married.

His fossil bones are unpacked and some are great treasures. He has some geology to do: R. I. Murchison has lent him a map and asked him to look at a part of the country he has been describing.

Their only protection against having Harriet Martineau as sister-in-law is that she works Erasmus too hard.

Dinner at the Hensleigh Wedgwoods’. They have agreed to go over his journal. Henry Holland thinks it not worth publishing alone because it goes over FitzRoy’s ground.

His impressions of Harriet Martineau: "She is overwhelmed with her own projects, her own thoughts and own abilities."

News of family and friends.

Caroline repeats story told to R. W. Darwin of FitzRoy’s feeling of obligation to Captain John White, from whom he gained release to marry Miss O’Brien.

Fanny Biddulph has had a son.

Interested in Lyell’s address [Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond. 2 (1833–8): 479–523]. Asks what the points are on which CD and Lyell are fully agreed.

Inquires about the paper FitzRoy and CD wrote on missionaries ["Moral state of Tahiti" (1836), Collected papers 1: 19–38].

News of family.

Has just given a paper [on "Sand tubes"] at Cambridge Philosophical Society and exhibited some specimens. It went well, with Whewell and Sedgwick taking an active part.

Herschel thinks 6000–odd years since the creation not nearly long enough to explain the separations from a single stock.