The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-03-20
.CRONIE AND ST. HELENA
WHERE NAPOLEON's TROUBLED
SPIRIT CHAFED.
A Place Where Nature Never Insults,
and Prison Chains Are of the Minds
own Forging.

With the determination of the British
military authorities to send General
Cronje and other Boer generals as fast
as they are captured, to st. Helena,
renews interest in the little island
which was the prison and death-place
of the great conqueror, Napoleon.
In the narrative of Commodore Per-
RVS expedition to Japan in 1852, 1858
and 1854, written by DIR. Francis L.
Hawks at the request and under the
supervision of Commodore Perry, him
self, the following account of st. Hell
ena is given. 1t is curious that this
Island, once the possession of the
Dutch, should now become the prison
of one of the leaders of the descendants
of the Dutch.
ION the 10th of January, 1852 the
flagship Mississippi arrived at James
town, Island of st. Helena.
st. Helena was discovered in 1902
by the Portuguese. 1t was afterwards
taken possession of by the Dutch, who,
in 1851, abandoned it for the Cape of
Good Hope. The English East India
Company then took possession of it and
it became a stopping place for their
ships between England and India. The
Dutch took it from the company in
1872, but it again fell into their hands
in the following year. From that time
up to 1888 it remained in the company's
DOSS6SSlOI, WIl6n II was transferred 10
the crown. The base of the island is
basalt, and lava and scora are scat
tered about it's surface. 1t is evidently
volcanic, and seen from a distance, it
appears like a pile of barren rocks ris-
ing from the ocean in the form of a
pyramid.
ION a nearer approach the island is
seen to be encompassed by rugged and
almost perpendicular cliffs from 600 to
1900 feet high. These are broken in
several places by chasms which open to
the seashore, and form narrow valleys
winding up to the tableland above. In
the center of the island is an elevation
known as Diana's Peak, 1858 feet above
the sea level. A calcareous range runs
across the island from east to west
and divides it into two unequal parts,
the larger and the better of which is
on the north side, containing among
other spots of interest jamestown,
Longwood, the Briars, the Plantation
House, the governors summer resi-
dence. The whole circumference of the
island is about % miles. At the termi-
nation of James Valley, on the sea,
stands jamestown, the only town and
port of the island, with a population of
about $500. 1t is built on both sides
of a well paved street which runs near
ly a mile up the valley. Ascending
James Valley the traveller arrives on
the plain or tableland of Longwood,
which consists of $500 acres of good
land elevated about 1000 feet above the
sea, and slopes gently toward the
| southeast Though the island Jocks so
barren from the sea, yet the interior is
covered with rich verdure, and is
watered by numerous springs, which
irrigate a very fertile soil.
1.-THE climate is one of the most salu-
briops under the tropics. At Planta-
tion House the thermometer ranges
from 81 to 70 within doors, and some
times between June and September,
the winter season, falls to 81 in the
open air. At Longwood the thermome-
ter is generally a little lower, and at
Jamestown a little higher than at
Plantation Hous. The summer rains
fall in January and February and the
winter rains in July or August.
1T will thus be seen that so far as
physical comfort is involved, st. Helena
is not the worst of prisons, and If it
provoked indignant remonstrance from
the illustrious captive who laid his
bones there, his complaints were
prompted not so much by the aspects
of nature around, which never insulted
him, as by the petty indignities offered
him by little minds, and the irksome-
ness of restraint to a chafed spirit,
which, in it's isolation, felt deeply the
contrast between it's now enforced soli-
| tude and it's former mingling and ruling
in the crowd of men, welding as If by
magic the destinies of Europe. To him
a hemisphere for his theater and ma
lions for his playthings had become, in
some sort, a necessity. His own spirit
forged the heaviest chains on st. Hell
ena."