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The archipelago is a little world within itself, or rather a satelite attached to America, whence it has derived a few stray colonists, and has received the general character of its indigenous productions. Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more astonished at the confined range. Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the boundaries of most of the lava streams still distinct, we are led to believe that within a period geologically recent, the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, in both space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat nearer to that great fact — that mystery of mysteries — the first appearance of new beings on this earth.
— Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle
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