ST. HELENA 89 



became so difficult that another 200 emigrants went to the 

 Cape, and 260 liberated Africans still on the island petitioned 

 to be allowed to return to their own homes. The delivery 

 of them to their various homes could not be carried out, as 

 they came from so many different places, but they were 

 conveyed in ships either to Lagos or to Sierra Leone, where 

 R. P. Pooley, Esq., our present U.S. Consul, says he met 

 many who had formerly been on the island. The troubles 

 of the islanders became more and more general, very few 

 ships called, and gunboats were very occasional, and, to 

 crown all, in 1873 another destructive flood occurred. 

 This came from the north side of Sandy Bay ridge, and 

 caused very much damage to properties in the valley of 

 Jamestown and Lemon Valley. In Friar's Valley a cot- 

 tage was washed away, and the family, consisting of a 

 father and seven children, were carried to sea by the tor- 

 rent and drowned. 



1874 saw the construction of a flax-works, and a steam 

 flax machine of the Colonial and Fibre Company was in- 

 troduced. This was erected in Jamestown close to the sea, 

 but soon had to be closed as unprofitable. The flax was 

 brought in its raw state on donkeys to the flax-works. 

 Had the works been built near where the flax grew, the 

 experiment might have succeeded, for the flax is un- 

 doubtedly of good strength, but the difficulty was the 

 water-power required. Flax was cultivated in large quan- 

 tities, and much attention also was given to the growth of 

 coffee and cotton. 



7 



THE FURCROEA GIGANTEA, 



unlike the New Zealand flax, will grow anywhere in the island, and 

 in fairly good soil attains huge proportions. In the Aloe Walk, 

 Government House Grounds at Plantation, the average length of 

 the leaves is between 7 and 8 feet, with a width of 6 inches ; on 

 the arid hill-sides of Jamestown they are barely half the length. 

 A sample of the St. Helena fibre which was submitted by Dr. Morris, 

 C.M.G., assistant-director of Kew, to Messrs. Collyer and Co., 

 Fenchurch Street, was reported on as follows : Good length, full 

 strength, rather dull colour, generally well cleaned, but with some 

 runners untouched and barky ; value ^28 to ^30 per ton. They 

 went on to say that in some respects it was more suitable for cord- 

 age than the Mauritius fibre, that is, more like Manilla hemp. Some 

 leaves of the furcroea are quite 9 feet in length. 



