no ST. HELENA 



Rats have from the earliest times been a pest on the 

 island, and the fear of plague made the Government offer 

 a sum of one penny per head ; then of twopence, and, when 

 they became scarcer, of threepence per head. This to a 

 great extent cleared the country of these troublesome 

 rodents. 



Deadwood Plain, which lies due east of the island, became 

 filled with the tents of the Transvaalers and of the 4th 

 Battalion Gloucester Regiment, which was commanded by 

 Lieut. -Colonel Earl Bathurst, so it was found necessary to 

 form another camp. Broadbottom, a large plain on the 

 western side of the island, was chosen, and here the Orange 

 Free Staters were located. 



In April 1901 Captain Meiklejohn arrived per R.M.S. 

 Raglan Castle. In this month also His Excellency and Mrs. 

 Sterndale left for England on sick leave, Colonel Evans 

 assuming the reins of government. Governor Sterndale 

 returned again in August. 



In January 1902 the British steamship Orient arrived 

 with 1,050 prisoners, followed on the 25th by the Britannia, 

 which brought thirty-nine Boer officers, amongst them 

 General Ben Viljoen, who had done so much for the Boers 

 in the field ! 



February brought the British transport Victorian with 

 the last batch of prisoners, consisting of twenty officers and 

 fifty-seven rebels. 



The camps were nicely laid out and girdled by three 

 separate fencings of barbed wire separated by tangled barb, 

 and guarded outside by patrolling soldiers ; for such a 

 number congregated together there was very little trouble 

 given by the majority; but, as is usual in all communities, 

 there were bound to be agitators and ill-conditioned men. 

 Usually the prisoners would settle their little disturbances 

 amongst themselves, but some cases required the decision 

 of the British commandants. Several of the untractable 

 were confined in High Knoll, one amongst these being 

 Eloff. Schiel also was confined there for a short time. 



By degrees the moneyed men amongst the prisoners, 

 dissatisfied with sharing tents, built for themselves snug 

 little huts. Some of them were well constructed, the 

 majority being composed of paraffin tins soldered together 



