enlarged, and additional accommodation provided for watering the
ships which, called at the port.
The value of the Island for purposes of British, commerce
with the East was now fully developed; indeed, without it that
great trade could not have been carried on with the success that
attended it, and Brigadier-General Walker, who arrived on the
11th March, was another of those highly distinguished Indian
officers who then sought the post of Governor. Under these circumstances,
it is not remarkable that the withdrawal of the large
additional expenditure caused by Napoleon’s captivity was. so little
felt by the inhabitants.
Governor Walker extended to St. Helena those philanthropic
measures which had characterized his service in the Bombay Presidency,
and he made great efforts to improve the religious as well as
the moral condition of the St. Helena slaves.
The institution of agricultural fairs, ploughing matches, and
other means of encouraging the inhabitants to rely more upon the
produce of the soil, were prominent amongst his many undertakings.
He laid the foundation of the Head School building in 1824, and, in
1827, commenced the building of the military offices on the main
parade in Jamestown.
His successor, until whose arrival on the 29th of April, 1828,
Mr. T. H. Brooke again filled the post of Acting' Governor, was
Brigadier-General Dallas, an officer of equally high standing, and in
his energy for the welfare of the Island even surpassing any of his
predecessors. Aided by an able executive he carried out many
public works of improvement, amongst which were—the construction
of the inclined plane or ladder from Jamestown to Ladder Hill,
commenced in August, 1828, and finished in December of the following
year; the sinking of a well to the depth of eighty-three feet in
Rupert’s Valley, in the year 1830, with a view to obtaining water
and fertilizing that portion of the Island; and, in the following year,
the construction of the infantry barracks in the town, ’ and the
' establishment of fire plugs for service in case of fire.
I t was during his government, in the year 1832, that the East
India Company abolished slavery in the Island, purchasing from their
owners the freedom of the slaves, at that time in number 614, for a
sum of 28,0627. 17«., thus putting an end, amongst other abuses, to
such atrocious placards as the following ¡—
“ At the same time will be let for five years, two women
servants, two girls, and a good fisherman.”*
“ Also will be sold at the said house, a slave boy aged
nine years, and a slave girl aged seven years, with a few
articles of furniture, &c.”f
The East India Company having reared this little settlement in
the lap of luxury through a period of 182 years, sparing nothing
that could add to its prosperity and advancement, as well as to the
comfort and enjoyment of its inhabitants, it is not to be wondered
at that the latter little understood the meaning of self-reliance. The
annual expenditure in the Island by the Company amounted to eighty
or ninety thousand pounds, and they maintained a garrison there of
three companies of artillery, called the St. Helena Artillery, a St.
Helena Regiment of four companies, in all 700 strong, exclusive of
a corps of militia; but ere long, a heavy blow fell upon this
flourishing, peaceful, and happy British Settlement—one from which
it has never recovered, and since which it has gradually descended
in the scale of prosperity.
I t was in the year 1833, that the St. Helenians received the
almost crushing intelligence, that, by Act of Parliament dated
28th August of the same year, the Island was no longer to be ruled
by the Honourable • East India Company after the 22nd April,
1834, but to be transferred to His Majesty’s Government. There was
little time allowed for reflection; the garrison was dispersed, some
being pensioned, some taking office under the new Government;
while the Civil Establishments were broken up, and many who had
been accustomed to affluence were reduced almost in a' moment to
comparative poverty. J On the 24th February, 1836, Major-General
Middlemore arrived, and, with a garrison composed of H.M.’s
91st Regiment, took possession of the Island in the name of King
William the Fourth.
The East India Company’s Governor had received an income of
about 90007. a year, while the Governor appointed by the Crown
was to receive about one-fourth of that amount. Plantation House,
his residence, a mansion with its undulating and well-wooded park,
* The Monthly Register, St. Helena, 1810. f Ibid.
1 So hard did the Company’s treatment of their servants press upon many of them, that
twenty years after this event officers of high rank might be seen digging the soil side by side
with their own negro servant in the struggle to support their families.