28 
ST. HELENA . 
enlarged, and additional accommodation provided for watering the 
ships which called at the port. 
The value of the Island for purposes of British commerce 
with the East was now fully developed; indeed, without it that 
great trade could not have been carried on with the success that 
attended it, and Brigadier-General Walker, who arrived on the 
11th March, was another of those highly distinguished Indian 
officers who then sought the post of Governor. Under these circum- 
stances, it is not remarkable that the withdrawal of the large 
additional expenditure caused by Napoleon’s captivity was so little 
felt by the inhabitants. 
Governor Walker extended to St. Helena those philanthropic 
measures which had characterized his service in the Bombay Presi- 
dency, and he made great efforts to improve the religious as well as 
the moral condition of the St. Helena slaves. 
The institution of agricultural fairs, ploughing matches, and 
other means of encouraging the inhabitants to rely more upon the 
produce of the soil, were prominent amongst his many undertakings. 
He laid the foundation of the Head School building in 1824, and, in 
1827, commenced the building of the military offices on the main 
parade in Jamestown. 
His successor-, until whose arrival on the 29th of April, 1828, 
Mr. T. H. Brooke again filled the post of Acting Governor, was 
Brigadier-General Dallas, an officer of equally high standing, and in 
his energy for the welfare of the Island even surpassing any of his 
predecessors. Aided by an able executive he carried out many 
public works of improvement, amongst which were — the construction 
of the inclined plane or ladder from Jamestown to Ladder Hill, 
commenced in August, 1828, and finished in December of the follow- 
ing year ; the sinking of a well to the depth of eighty -three feet in 
Bupert’s Valley, in the year 1830, with a view to obtaining water 
and fertilizing that portion of the Island; and, in the following year, 
the construction of the infantry barracks in the town, and the 
establishment of fire plugs for service in case of fire. 
It was during his government, in the year 1832, that the East 
India Company abolished slavery in the Island, purchasing from then- 
owners the freedom of the slaves, at that time in number 614, for a 
sum of 2S,0G2/. 17;?., thus putting an end, amongst other abuses, to 
such atrocious placards as the following : — 
