213 THE SEA. 



factory can be started for 500 or 600, and a coffee plantation for something- over 1,000. 

 Sugar-planting, &c., is much more expensive, and would require for plant, &c., 5,000, 

 or more. 



And now, on the way home from the African station, the good ship will pass close 

 to, if indeed it does not touch at, the Island of St. Helena, a common place of refresh- 

 ment for vessels sailing to the northward. Vessels coming southward rarely do so; sailing 

 hips can hardly make the island. It lies some ],200 miles from the African coasts, in 

 mid-ocean. St. Helena has much the appearance, seen from a distance, of the summit of 

 some great submarine mountain, its rugged and perpendicular cliffs rising from the shore 

 to altitudes from 300 to 1,500 feet. In a few scattered places there are deep, precipitous 

 ravines, opening to the sea, whose embouchures form difficult but still possible landing- 

 places for the fishermen. In one of the lai-gest of these, towards the north-west, the 

 capital and port of the island, James Town, is situated. It is the residence of the 

 authorities. The anchorage is good and sufficiently deep, and the port is well protected 

 from the winds. The town is entered by an arched gateway, within which is a spacious 

 parade, lined with official residences, and faced by a handsome church. The town is 

 in no way remarkable, but has well-supplied shops. The leading inhabitants prefer to live 

 outside it on the higher and cooler plateaux of the island, where many of them have very 

 fine country houses, foremost of which is a villa named Plantation House, belonging to 

 the governor, surrounded by pleasant grounds, handsome trees and shrubs. In the garden 

 gi'ounds tropical and ordinary fruits and vegetables flourish ; the mango, banana, tamarind, 

 and sugar-cane; the orange, citron, grape, fig, and olive, equally with the common fruits 

 of England. The yam and all the European vegetables abound; three crops of potatoes 

 have been often raised from the same ground in one year. The hills are covered with 

 the cabbage tree, and the log-wood and gum-wood trees. Cattle and sheep are scarce, 

 but goats browse in immense herds on the hills. No beasts of prey are to be met, but 

 there are plenty of unpleasant and poisonous insects. Game and fish are abundant, and 

 turtles are often found. All in all, it is not a bad place for Jack after a long voyage, 

 although not considered healthy. It has a military governor, and there are barracks. 



The interior is a plateau, divided by low mountains, the former averaging 1,500 

 feet above the sea. The island is undoubtedly of volcanic origin. It was discovered on 

 the 22nd May (St. Helena's Day), by Juan de Nova, a Portuguese. The Dutch first 

 held it, and it was wrested from them first by England in 1673, Charles II. soon after- 

 wards granting it to the East India Company, who, with the exception of the period of 

 Napoleon's imprisonment, held the proprietorship to 1834, when it became an appanage 

 of the Crown. 



The fame of the little island rests on its having been the prison of the great dis- 

 turber of Europe. Every reader knows the circumstances which preceded that event. 

 He had gone to Rochefort with the object of embarking for America, but finding the 

 whole coast so blockaded as to render that scheme imprac' icable, surrendered himself to 

 Captain Maitland, commander of the English man-of-war BrUeroplion, who immediately 

 set sail for Torbay. No notice whatever was taken of his letter an uncourteous proceeding, 

 to say the least of it, towards a fallen foe and on the 7th of August he was removed 



