Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1906-11-21


famous st. Helena. For six years the
great Napoleon was prisoner on this
lonely rock in the mid-Atlantic, and
there the Little Corporal of Corsica,
the first consul of France, the emper-
or of the French. the indomitable man
who made the march to Moscow, and
who led the eagles of the French ma
ton to defeat at Waterloo, laid down
his life in weary exile. There his
empty tomb in Paris, which is yearly
visited by all the tourists who throng
the streets of the gay capital of France.
still stands almost the only memorial
of the man who changed the face Of
Europe.
When st. Helena was on the route
OF vessels bound for India as we'll as
those for South Africa, it was visited
by many persons, draw thither by
the glamour of mighty name. But
since the opening of the Suez Canal
changed the sea route to India and
China and fast steamships to Cape
Town found it not worth while to
halt where there are few good har-
Dor facilities, ST. Helena has become
more and more neglected. The last
use to which 1t was put as a place of
Imprisonment for several thousand
OF the followers of Dom Paul when the
Brltlsh-Boer war in South Africa was
IN progress, just as others were sent
to Bermuda and to India, but now it
Is proposed TO withdraw the British
garrison and when this is done even
the use of the island as a prison sta.
tion viii cease. The garrison is TO 90
| away next month.
st. Helena lies 1-200 miles off tho
coas. OF Portuguese West Africa and
there Is no land above water nearer
70 IL than Ascension island, which Is
SVO miles away. 1t lies Is degrees
south OF the equator and the climate
Is modified by sea breezes and is mod.
crate and equable. The island takas
lts name from the fact that 1t was dis
covered on st. Helenas Day. 1901. by
portuguese navigator, Joac do Nova,
put he did not make his discova,-v
known until 1t had been rediscoyered
quarter OF a century later. The
Dutch made the first settlement There.
on In 1916. but it was taken from
tnem by the English and granted TO
the British East Indian company IN
| Io5'' but possession passed again n
| the Dutch later and again to the Eng.
! ilsn, and this was thrice ren.eatad
Finally the English gained permanent
possession OF it and there were seye-
raj thousand colonists who went tnItb.
er' They replaced the indigenous
nora with many exotic plants which
nourish there. The great variety ~
| Indigenous plants, many of them no.
cu4Iar 10 the island, practically have
disappeared AS a crown COLONY 81
helena is an appanage of the British
sovereign, but It's value has So A.
creased since it was taken ont of tha
llde OF travel to India, China and
Japan that 1t Is practically worthless
Inc line forests which once cover M
the nils have been in the main on,
on and the farms are chiefly sheen
| pastures.
81. Helena is of volcanic origin and
tne Mus are about $500 feet above
the sea. The island Is about ton and
halt miles long and six broad n
contains an area Of forty-seyeu souara
miles. The coast is mostly rocky and
preclpitous some Of the clifrs being
<'oVo rect Eigh, on which the ocean
Safses and str' - with a tremendous
ROAR IN time of storms. There is only
one good harbor-in the northwest
and here the capital. Jamestown a
pace OF about $500 inhabitants ia
built. 10
Ihree miles from jamestown ia
Longwood, where In a farmhouse Ma.
poieon passed his years of exile far
from france and his loved troops
guarded by English soldiers and liv,
ing practical solitude from 1915 TO
may D, 1921, when death ended biz
ghUtering and sombre career. wh an
hrst made prisoner by the allied
forces in 1914 he was sent to Eliza
on the coast of Sardinia. but he man.
aged to elude the vigilance OF his
GUARDS and escape, to agpin lead the
FORCES OF France. but not to victory
l2f Wellington and Butcher defeated
nam In that fatal fight in Belgium in
ol5, about which so much has been
written.
One OF the most famous of palm.
dromes or lines which read forward
and backward the same. like the
names of Hannah or Anna is this re-.
ferring to Napoleon Bonaparte. able
was ere | saw Elba."
The result of his escape from Ella
was that the English decided to take
theif world-famous prisoner so ia,
aw&y that he could not again es.
cape to cause trouble in Europe. and
he was placed on the African isle.
A governor and a council control
St Helena with 1000 people but the
majority of those able to get away
have gone in recent years, and with
the withdrawal Of the British Garrison
much of the interest In the place will
many more are expected to 50, az
be gone. Those who go TO Cape Col
ony, the nearest British possession,
must have at least $50 apiece or they
| will not he alInwad IN land and az