114 e x p e d i t i o n t o j a p a n .
smooth sea, for the wind drawing from forward increases the draught of the
furnaces.
After crossing the equator a current of about one and a half mile per
hour was observed, setting in the direction of the wind, north 30° west.
The chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Jones, employed himself with great care
and assiduity, while passing through the equatorial latitudes, in observing
and noting the zodiacal lights. They were very brilliant, and so remarkable
that they proved an object of great interest to all on board. He preserved
with great care the result of all his observations, in the hope of their future
usefulness to the cause of science.
On the 10th of January, at noon, the ship arrived at Jamestown, island
of St. Helena.
Here, as a measure rather of prudence than necessity, she took on hoard
an additional supply of coal. Water and fresh provisions for the crew were
also procured.
St. Helena was discovered in 1502 by the Portuguese. I t was afterward
taken possession of by the Dutch, who, in 1651, 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 1772, but it again fell into their
hands in the following year. From that time up to 1833 it remained in
the company’s possession, when it was transferred to the crown. The base
of the island is basalt, and lava and scoria are scattered about its surface.
I t is evidently volcanic, and seen from a distance it appears like a pile of
barren rocks rising from the ocean in the form of a pyramid.
On a nearer approach the island is seen to be encompassed by rugged
and almost perpendicular cliffs from six to twelve hundred feet high. These
are broken in several places by chasms which open to the sea shore, and form
narrow valleys winding up to the table land above. In the centre of the
island is an elevation known as Diana’s peak, 2,693 feet above the sea level.
A calcareous ridge runs across the island from east to west, and divides it
into two unequal parts, the larger and better of which is on the north side,
containing, among other spots of interest, Jamestown, Longwood, the Briars
and Plantation house, the governor’s summer-residence. The whole circumference
of the island is about twenty-eight miles. At the termination
of James’ valley on the sea stands Jamestown, the only town and port of
the island, with a population of about twenty-five hundred. I t is built on
both sides of a well-paved street which runs nearly a mile up the valley. A
strong water battery commands the bay. Ascending James’ valley, the
traveller arrives on the plain or table land of Longwood, which consists of
fifteen hundred acres of good land, elevated about 2,000 feet above the sea,
and slopes gently toward the southeast. Though the island looks so barren
from the sea, yet the interior is covered with a rich verdure, and is watered
ST. H E L E N A . 115
by numerous springs which irrigate a very fertile soil. The fruits and
flowers of Europe and Asia are successfully cultivated, while horned cattle,
sheep, and goats thrive on the rich pastures. Barley, oats, Indian corn,
potatoes, and most of the common vegetables are easily produced. Fresh
beef, mutton and poultry may at all times be procured, and fish are abundant.
The climate is one of the most salubrious under the tropics. At Plantation
house the thermometer ranges from 61° to 73° within doors, and
sometimes, between June and September, (the winter season,) falls to 52° in
the open air. At Longwood the thermometer is generally a little lower,
and at Jamestown a little higher, than it is at Plantation house. The summer
rains fall in January or February, and the winter rains in July or
August.
The East India Company, while in possession of the island, constructed
excellent roads, which are kept in admirable order by the present government;
they are inclined planes, adapted as well for wheel carriages and
artillery as for horses and foot passengers; and as one rides through the country
the appearance of the cultivated fields, kept constantly green by the
rains which fall in light showers from the clouds, driven over the island by
the southeast trades, forms a striking and agreeable contrast to the barren
cliffs which shelter the valleys. During the winter months, indeed, the rains
are commonly very copious, and sometimes fall in such torrents as seriously
to injure the cultivated grounds, and make for a time the roads impassable.
I t 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
irksomeness of restraint to a chafed spirit, which, in its isolation, felt deeply the
contrast between its now enforced solitude and its former mingling and
ruling in the crowd of men, wielding as if by magic the destinies of Europe.
To him a hemisphere for his theatre and nations for his playthings had
become in some sort a necessity. His own spirit forged his heaviest chains
on St. Helena.
But it was the memory of that captive which gave to the officers of the
ship the chief interest of the island, and every one accordingly made it his
first object to visit Longwood and the spot where the ashes of Napoleon had
onee rested.
In viewing the miserable building where, for more than five years, this
extraordinary man resided, and where he breathed his last, it is difficult to
suppress a deep feeling of the instability of earthly glory. The palaces of
France and the farm house of Longwood, Napoleon in his splendor and
Napoleon on his death bed, are suggestive of reflections which will tempt the