210 ST. HELENA 



pendicular ; whatever his feelings may have been in viewing 

 this and comparing it, he said nothing. After crossing the 

 line with the usual ceremonies, they were compelled to 

 make a sweep off the Gulf of Guinea in consequence of a 

 wind from the north-west, but soon the lofty peak of St. 

 Helena was dimly seen about sunset on October 14. 



Sir George Cockburn in his diary notes written during the 

 voyage says : 



I cannot but remark that his (Napoleon's) general manners, 

 as far as I am yet able to speak of them, are uncouth and disagreable. 

 To his French friends they are most overbearing, if not absolutely 

 rude. 



On August 12 the diary reads : 



Buonaparte came on deck this day earlier than usual, that is 

 to say about three o'clock. He does not generally quit his bed 

 till about ten or eleven, and, like most Frenchmen, he breakfasts 

 on meat and wine, reads, etc., before he makes his toilet, but does 

 not come out of his cabin till he is dressed ; then he takes a short 

 walk on deck and plays until dinner, when he eats and drinks a 

 great deal. 



August 17. In the course of conversation, Buonaparte re- 

 marked that he had been placed in chief command as a general 

 officer at twenty-four years of age, and that he made his conquest 

 of Italy at twenty-five. That he had risen from nothing to be the 

 sovereign of his country (as Consul) at thirty, and if chance had 

 caused him to be killed the day after he entered Moscow, his would 

 have been a career of advancement and uninterrupted success 

 without a parallel the misfortunes which afterwards befell the 

 French army would have tended rather to the advancement of his 

 fame. 



In these days of electricity it is difficult to place ourselves 

 in the position of the inhabitants of St. Helena in 1815. 



With no cable and no steam, the news on the arrival of 

 H.M.S. Icarus that Napoleon Buonaparte was a prisoner in 

 the Northumberland, and within a few days' sail of the 

 island, caused an astonishment which it would be difficult 

 to describe. It was entirely unexpected ; no communica- 

 tions had reached the Governor, and the captain of the 

 Icarus could only tell them of the fact of Napoleon's prox- 

 imity and that the second battalion of the 53rd Regiment 

 had embarked in the squadron. The St. Helenians felt that 

 the consequences to them of the appropriation of the island 

 as a prison might not be pleasant ; they also feared the 



