skip to content
Home

Darwin Correspondence Project

To B. J. Sulivan   20 March 1881

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)

March 20th 1881

My dear Sulivan

It was very kind in you to answer & interest not only me but all my family by your very curious account of the Fuegians.—1 It is truly wonderful what you say about their honesty & their language.—2 I certainly shd. have predicted that not all the Missionaries in the world could have done what has been done.—

You say nothing about your own health, which I hope may be fair. I am very sorry to hear about your daughter.3

I have no news about myself: my life is like clock-work working away at what little I can do more in Science.—

We are growing very old men—or at least I feel so.—

Believe me, my dear Sulivan | Yours ever very sincerely | Charles Darwin

Footnotes

2
Thomas Bridges, a missionary, had reported that there was no theft of eggs or meat by Fuegians although these were kept in unlocked buildings. He discussed the Yahgan language, which he noted was more inflected than classical Greek (see letter from B. J. Sulivan, 18 March 1881).
3
Sulivan reported that his daughter was still lame (see letter from B. J. Sulivan, 18 March 1881 and n. 8).

Summary

Thanks for BJS’s account of the Fuegians. CD would have predicted that "not all the missionaries in the world could have done what has been done".

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13092
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Bartholomew James Sulivan
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Sulivan family (private collection)
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13092,” accessed on 5 June 2025, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13092.xml

letter

Darwin Correspondence Project
darwin@lib.cam.ac.uk

© University of Cambridge 2022

Copyright declaration

Privacy policy

Website by Surface Impression

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge