ST. HELENA 179 



wood was being prepared for him. The day after his arrival he rode 

 to Longwood and on returning was struck with the appearance of 

 the Briars and expressed a wish to remain there. It is very probable 

 he did not wish to return to the town where crowds were waiting 

 to see him. Mr. Balcombe, the owner, readily gave him accom- 

 modation, and his daughter Miss Betsy (Mrs. Abell) gives in her book 

 Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon numerous and humerous 

 anecdotes, many of them remembered by old people not long passed 

 away. Miss Betsy seems to have been a very lively girl. In a steep 

 descent she pushed her sister Jane with such force against Count 

 Las Casas that to the horror of the old count he found himself made 

 a catapult of on to the back of Napoleon who was leading the way. 

 This was done to revenge herself on Napoleon who the day before 

 held her while young Las Casas kissed her. Another time she with 

 a drawn sword kept Napoleon pinned in a corner of the room. 

 Napoleon's method of punishing her was to pinch her and call her 

 Mademoiselle Bets<?0, and on one occasion when she expected to go 

 to a ball at the Castle he ran away with her ball dress and kept it 

 until Betsy was in despair at having to stay at home. Her father's 

 method of punishing her was more severe, for he locked her up in a 

 dark cellar infested with rats and terrorised her. 



(The Briars for many years was the property of Mr. George Moss, 

 but is now owned by the Eastern Telegraph Company.) 



BROADBOTTOM. Unlike many of the island ravines, which are 

 generally narrow, this widens out at the bottom and forms a fine 

 broad flat of arable land. On nth August, 1679, it is recorded that 

 Lieut. Johnson had chosen his grant of thirty acres at Great Bottom 

 near High Peak. This Lieut. Johnson afterwards became Governor 

 Johnson and was shot by Henry Fogg, a confederate in Sergt. Jack- 

 son's mutiny in 1693, particulars of which are given in Brooke's 

 History. The fact that the Governor had been warned but treated 

 the warning lightly is not noted by Brooke. We find this, however, 

 in the settlement of a private dispute between Hoskinson v. Rooker 

 which took place nine months after the mutiny. A witness named 

 Gargen then stated that he heard Fogg speak of their intent and 

 " he told Governor Johnson what he heard from Fogg, which the 

 Governor made light of, "but that the Governor as an acknowledge- 

 ment " sent him a clean pipe by his son Caleb." Governor John- 

 son's widow and son remained in possession of Broadbottom, the 

 widow died in 1713 and the son in 1745, when he bequeathed it to 

 his son-in-law John Alexander in whose family it remained till 

 1843, when it was surrendered to Government for a mortgage to 

 the Widows' Fund. The original allotments of land to first settlers 

 very soon changed owners, and passed through many transfers, 

 and this of Broadbottom is the only one that remained in the same 

 family until the transfer of the island to the Crown. 



(Broadbottom, which now belongs to the Hon. G. N. Moss, member 

 of Council, has come lately into great notice as the camping ground 

 for the prisoners from the Orange Free State during the Transvaal 

 War.) 



