ST. HELENA 109 



On the night of February 2, 1901, a very determined at- 

 tempt to escape from the island was made at Sandy Bay, 

 by four of the Boer prisoners of war, one of them being the 

 grandson of President Kruger (Commandant P. Eloff ). The 

 men had a quantity of provisions with them, and seized 

 an old fishing-boat at Sandy Bay. The fishermen, who 

 had just landed, took away the oars, and a struggle ensued 

 between the prisoners and fishermen for possession of 

 them, the latter succeeding in retaining them. The 

 prisoners got into the boat rand tore up the bottom 

 boards to make paddles of, but finding them useless they 

 again landed, and tried to bribe the fishermen by offering 

 a goodly sum for the boat and oars, but without avail. 

 While this was going on a messenger sped on his way to 

 report the occurrence, and in the early dawn of the morn- 

 ing (Sunday) a guard from Broadbottom Camp arrived and 

 took the men into custody. This attempt was an ex- 

 tremely foolhardy one, for the boat was in such a condition 

 that it would have been in half before they were many miles 

 from the shore. In fact, it broke in half a fortnight after 

 the occurrence. 



Another escape was attempted by two Frenchmen 

 amongst the prisoners. They bathed from the beach at 

 Rupert's and attempted to swim to a ship in harbour. 

 Being seen by the guardship the guns were directed on them 

 and they were hailed. One turned and swam back to 

 Rupert's Beach, the other swam to the steps of Jamestown 

 wharf, where he was taken in charge and escorted to camp. 



The American whaler, Morning Star, Captain King 

 (226 tons), arrived in June from whaling, bound to New 

 Bedford with a catch of 900 barrels of sperm-whale oil. 

 With such success it is hoped the whaling fleet will again 

 visit these waters. 



An outbreak of bubonic plague occurred in 1901 in South 

 Africa. 



All vessels touching at the Cape ports were therefore 

 under quarantine regulations when they called at St. 

 Helena — no passengers were allowed to land except for the 

 island, and then only under strict quarantine. No cargo 

 was brought by steamers, no parcel post allowed. This 

 was a terrible loss to the island in the matter of trade. 



