20 
ST. HELENA. 
The Island, fostered and cared for in every way by the East 
India Company, had, at this time, risen to the very acme of its pros- 
perity. The great increase in the circulation of money, caused by 
the large garrison which came in with Napoleon, was soon felt by 
the inhabitants to be to their advantage; but unfortunately this 
cause of prosperity, like the lavish expenditure of the Company, only 
tended to draw away the attention of the inhabitants from cultivating 
the soil to more easy and ready, but less certain, methods of earning 
a living. In the history of St. Helena it is much to be regretted 
that artificial sources of trade have always led to a neglect of agri- 
cultural industry, and as generation after generation grew up de- 
pendent upon other sources, the inhabitants, not having been forced 
to it, have never learnt the true value of the soil around, them. 
Napoleon, very soon after his arrival, showed a disinclination to 
he sociable ; doubtless he was aware, even at that time, of the pre- 
sence of a disease, which, unsuspected by those around him, was so 
silently but surely hastening a termination of his earthly career. 
His illness, as it became serious, was of brief duration, and at about 
six o’clock in the evening of the 5th May, 1821, he died at Long- 
wood Old House.* 
* “ The Post-Mortem, Examina tion of the First Napoleon s Body. — In the exhibition at 
present open in the Mechanic’s Hall, Dumfries, there is shown by Major Young, of Lincluden, 
a lock of hair cut from the head of the Great Napoleon after death, a letter in connexion with 
which is of some historical value. Hitherto French writers have represented that the post- 
mortem examination of Napoleon’s body was an unwarrantable liberty, taken in opposition to 
the deceased’s wish. The letter was only discovered, along with the lock of hair, three years 
ago, by Major Young, in a secret drawer of an old writing-desk belonging to his father, to 
whom the epistle was written by Dr. Short, a native of Dumfries, who held the office of prin- 
cipal medical officer of the British staff at St. Helena, and who superintended the dissection. 
It is as follows : — 
“ ‘ St. Helena, 7th May, 1821. 
My iiTiAK Sir, — You will, no doubt, be much surprised to hear of Bonaparte’s death, 
who expired on the 5th of May, after an illness of some standing. His disease was cancer in 
the stomach, that must have lasted some years, and been in a state of ulceration some months. 
I was in consultation and attendance several days, but he would not see strangers. I was 
officially introduced the moment he died. His face in death was the most beautiful I ever 
beheld, exhibiting softness and every good expression in the highest degree, and really seemed 
formed to conquer. The following day I superintended the dissection of his body — (at this time 
his countenance was much altered), — which was done at his own request, to ascertain the exact 
scat of the disease (which he imagined to be where it was afterwards discovered to be), with the 
view' of benefiting his son, who might inherit it. During the whole of his illness he never com- 
plained, and kept his character to the last. The disease being hereditary, his father having 
died of it, and his sister, the Princess Borghese, being supposed to have it, proves to the world 
that climate and mode of life had no hand in it, and contrary to the assertions of Messrs. 
O’Meara and Stokoe, his liver was perfectly sound; and had he been on the throne of France 
instead of an inhabitant of St. Helena, he would equally have suffered, as no earthly power could 
cure the disease when formed.’ ” — North British Advertiser, 2nd August, 1873. 
