104 ST. HELENA 



yet in about a month after the extraordinary wind the 

 island was visited by a thunder-storm which continued over 

 two days, and was accompanied by much rain and hail — of 

 hail up to this time there has been no record in St. Helena, 

 yet now, hail-stones half an inch in diameter were picked up 

 on the south-west part of the island, where the country was 

 thick with them. 



On Thursday, April 14, 1898, the arrival of Captain 

 Joshua Slocum in his little yacht Spray constituted an event 

 as unique in the history of St. Helena as the fact of a man 

 making alone a voyage round the globe in a nine-ton boat 

 probably is in the history of the world. 



The Spray made her appearance after a smart run of 

 sixteen days from Cape Town, the news of her arrival causing 

 a commotion among the community of the island, and many 

 visited the boat in which a feat requiring rare pluck and 

 skill had been so successfully accomplished — a feat which 

 in its extreme daring, amounted to foolhardiness. 



Captain Slocum hailed from Boston, from which port he 

 started on his voyage three years before, on April 24, 

 1895. He called successively at Fayal, Gilbraltar, Pernam- 

 buco, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Buenos Ayres, Straits of 

 Magellan (twice), thence to Juan Fernandez (Robinson 

 Crusoe's island), Samoa, Newcastle and Sydney (New 

 South Wales), Melbourne, Launceston (Tasmania), Torres 

 Straits across the Indian Ocean to the island of Keeling, 

 thence to Rodrigues, Mauritius, Natal and Cape Town, and 

 lastly St. Helena, whence he proceeded to the United States. 

 At the Garden Hall the Captain gave a very interesting 

 and humorous lecture on his voyage, illustrated by a series 

 of beautiful lantern-views of the various places he had 

 visited, and the classes of people met with. Mr. R. P. 

 Pooley, United States Consul, having introduced the Cap- 

 tain to the audience with a few amusing remarks, the 

 lecturer began by narrating an account of his voyage, telling 

 in a highly humorous manner the many and various in- 

 cidents which occurred on his voyage. His reason for 

 coming alone, he said, was because he could not get the one 

 he wanted to come with him. He could get lots of others, 

 but he didn't want them. He considered the failure of 

 many a great expedition was due to there being too many 



