Isabela Island

Isabela, called Albemarle Island in many early English accounts, was one of the Galápagos islands visited by naturalists before 1837. In February 1795 Archibald Menzies, the Scottish surgeon and naturalist on George Vancouver's expedition, collected three plant specimens here. In 1835 Charles Darwin visited the island during the Beagle's survey of the Galápagos and collected rock specimens. These landings and specimens show how the island was first examined by European science.