At Sea
Our first sight of land after our transatlantic crossing occurred yesterday when the high-rise buildings of downtown Recife showed above the horizon as we encountered whales off the Brazilian coast. Today we ran down the coast, sighting yet more whales, making for Salvador our first New World port of call on this voyage.
We have been following in the wake of famous forbears. The Portuguese discover of Brazil, Pedro Avares Cabral, saw land on 21 April 1500. His first name for it was the Island of the True Cross, subsequently modified to the Land of the True Cross, as the size of the new territory slowly became apparent. Its present name derives from the word for a red dye extracted from one of its trees, an early prized commodity from the New World. Land in the new territory was given away, for it was extraordinarily difficult to bring under cultivation: "You have granted us in leagues, a land that needs to be conquered in inches," one of the early colonists complained. The real incentive for development came from the discovery of gold by Portugal's imperial rival in South America, the Spanish. The quest for El Dorado began in Brazil and indeed there was eventually to be a lucky strike in the region since known as Manais Gerais. Cabral, who had discovered the territory by accident en route from Lisbon to India, had changed the course of his country's history.
So with Charles Darwin. An unfocussed young man, lacking application who had done poorly at school and university, he had set sail on board HMS Beagle primarily because he wanted to see the Dragon Tree that grows on the Canary Islands, by coincidence a tree also used by European artists for its red dye. When HMS Beagle arrived in the Canary Islands he was not allowed ashore: a cholera outbreak in Britain had led to his ship being quarantined. Five years later, after a circumnavigation of the world that also took Darwin across the Atlantic to Salvador, he returned home with the germ of his theory of evolution in his mind. With extraordinary single-mindedness and dedication, he spent the next forty years of his life testing and refining his ideas until, in 1859, his The Origin of Species was published, a book that has changed our intellectual world.
So, transatlantic crossings can be transformative. They can also be a lot of fun. Today is Halloween and there were decorations and costumes galore for our evening cocktail party ahead of our arrival in Salvador.
Our first sight of land after our transatlantic crossing occurred yesterday when the high-rise buildings of downtown Recife showed above the horizon as we encountered whales off the Brazilian coast. Today we ran down the coast, sighting yet more whales, making for Salvador our first New World port of call on this voyage.
We have been following in the wake of famous forbears. The Portuguese discover of Brazil, Pedro Avares Cabral, saw land on 21 April 1500. His first name for it was the Island of the True Cross, subsequently modified to the Land of the True Cross, as the size of the new territory slowly became apparent. Its present name derives from the word for a red dye extracted from one of its trees, an early prized commodity from the New World. Land in the new territory was given away, for it was extraordinarily difficult to bring under cultivation: "You have granted us in leagues, a land that needs to be conquered in inches," one of the early colonists complained. The real incentive for development came from the discovery of gold by Portugal's imperial rival in South America, the Spanish. The quest for El Dorado began in Brazil and indeed there was eventually to be a lucky strike in the region since known as Manais Gerais. Cabral, who had discovered the territory by accident en route from Lisbon to India, had changed the course of his country's history.
So with Charles Darwin. An unfocussed young man, lacking application who had done poorly at school and university, he had set sail on board HMS Beagle primarily because he wanted to see the Dragon Tree that grows on the Canary Islands, by coincidence a tree also used by European artists for its red dye. When HMS Beagle arrived in the Canary Islands he was not allowed ashore: a cholera outbreak in Britain had led to his ship being quarantined. Five years later, after a circumnavigation of the world that also took Darwin across the Atlantic to Salvador, he returned home with the germ of his theory of evolution in his mind. With extraordinary single-mindedness and dedication, he spent the next forty years of his life testing and refining his ideas until, in 1859, his The Origin of Species was published, a book that has changed our intellectual world.
So, transatlantic crossings can be transformative. They can also be a lot of fun. Today is Halloween and there were decorations and costumes galore for our evening cocktail party ahead of our arrival in Salvador.
