CHAPTER XXV. 



FROM ST. HELENA TO THE UNITED STATES. 



THE appearance which St. Helena presents, when viewed 

 from the ocean, is anything but inviting; nearly the whole 

 of its coast is steep and perpendicular like a wall, dotted here 

 and there with miserably stunted trees. 



The island was discovered by the Portuguese on the 21st 

 of May, in the year 1502, and was called by them St. Helena, 

 from the fact that the same day was the anniversary of the 

 Empress Helena, a Saint in the Roman Catholic calendar. 



In a valley, where they found a productive soil and abun- 

 dance of excellent water, the discoverers planted a small 

 colony ; they also stocked the valley with goats, horses, cattle, 

 and many other animals useful to man, which soon multiplied 

 and spread over the whole island. 



About the year 1651, the English East India Company 

 took possession of the island, it having been abandoned some 

 time before by the Dutch, who took it from the Portuguese in 

 the early part of the 17th century. The English introduced 

 into the island, as the Portuguese had done before them, 

 horses, sheep, grains and fruits. Tempting inducements were 

 held out to emigrants, and many were induced to settle in its 

 rich and romantic valleys. 



In 1815, the island became the involuntary residence of 

 Napoleon, a circumstance which has shed over it undying in- 

 terest, and rendered its name in every part of the civilized 

 globe as familiar as a household word. 



