Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-03-21
Crcnie at St. Helena,

NN" Aoih lEDuue. 50 lOuS us MS
name continue sto hold the place IL
does In human history, the little iso-
lated volcanic cone. of forty-seven
square miles, with a population of
barely four thousand. will NOT be per-
mitted to sink into oblivion. The
transportation of Gen. Cronje and his
men to that lonely place, more than
twelve hundred miles from Africa and
eight hundred miles from the nearest
island tAscension) would, of course,
serve to add to It new interest and
bring 1t once more into prominence.
st. Helena was discovered in 1902,
by a Portuguese explorer, Juan de
Nova Castillo. 1t was then densely
wooded, with redwood and ebony, but
the destruction of its forests has been
followed by a wasting away of the soil
SO that the slopes are now mostly
barren. Willows, poplars and other
trees from the temperate zone have
bee introduced. Apples, pears, grapes
and potatoes have been brought and
now grow side by side with coffee and
tea plants, sugar cane, cotton and ba-
nanas.
The island was first settled by Port
uguese deserters, who were afterward
Joined by escaped slaves. Their Off
spring were little later largely exter-
minated by the Portuguese. Some of
them, however, must have escaped the
general slaughter, for when Sir John
Cavendish. in his voyage around the
world, visited st. Helena in 1888 he
found 1t inhabited and containing a
small town. In 16i5 the Dutch ait
tempted to establish settlement, but
relinquished the island to the English
in 1861. In 1868 the commander of a
homeward bound East India fleet of
English vessels took formal possession
of 1t in the name of Charles U,who i'm
mediately made it over to the East IN
dia company. The Dutch again OBJ
talned possession in 1879. but the next
year it was recaptured by Captain
Richard Munden with three ships.
Since that time the island has remain
ed British possession.
The East India company invited set
tiers to emigrate from England to st.
Helena, and numbers of families
which had been reduced TO beggary by
the great fire in London took advant-
age of the offer of free land which was
assigned to them provided they would
cultivate 1t within six months. Slaves
were also introduced from Madagascar
Being situated in the direct track of
vessels bound from the east to Eng
land around the Cape of Good Hope it
soon became an important port of call
for large number of vessels. The
chief source OF income of the inhabi-
tants was derived from supplying
fresh provisions to. the ships that put
in at the port. A large garrison was
also kept up, there being at one time
nearly twelve thousand men stationed
there. Between 1916 and 1882, the
British government withdrew the is
land from the East India company, its
chief use during that period being as
a prison for Napoleon. In 1922 the
East India company resumed its jw-
isdiction over it, but in 1884 it became
Grown colony.
The island continued to prosper un-
til the opening of the Suez Canal.
This altered the route to the East In
dies, thus depriving the inhabitants of
their means of livelihood. The intro
duction of steam navigation also made
it unnecessary for vessels to touch at
that point.
The island also received another
blow in the reduction of the garrison
and of the naval squadron which had
been kept up for the suppression of
the slave trade. The inhabitants fell
into poverty. having nothing to de-
pend upon but the precarious sale of
supplies to American whalers which
sometimes make st. Helena a port of
cvall. 1t is now British Admiralty
ooaling station, to which the Cape and
West African squandrons sometimes
resort One battery of Royal Artillery
and one company of infantry are also
stationed there.
Almost throughout its entire cir
cumference of twenty-eight miles the
Island presents to the eye an unbroken
wall of cliffs, varying from 500 to 1000
feet in height. jamestown. the capi-
;al CT the isfand, is built in a ravine
which has almost vertical sides, the
height TO the east being called Rup-
erts Hill, and that 10 the west Ladder
Hill. These two mountains gradually
recede from one ancther until at the
sea, where they end in perpindicular
cliffs. the ravine is $50 feet broad
This triangular space is about one and
quarter miles long, and is defended
by Notifications at the entrance of the
ravine. Ladder Hill gets its name
from the steep wooden steps known as
Jacobs Ladder. which lead directly to
its summit, 600 feet in height.
One of the chief objects of interest
in st. Helena is the house at Long
wood in which Napoleon passed his
captivity. The plateau of Longwcod
is about 1000 feet above the level of