6 
ST. HELENA. 
of the invaders, who pushed onwards by way of Ladder Hill towards 
Fort James, into which the Governor and inhabitants had retired. 
After long and tedious attacks upon this fort it yielded to the Dutch- 
The Governor and English inhabitants, with their effects, made their 
escape on board of ships then in the harbour to the coast of Brazil, 
where, as good fortune would have it, they fell in with a British 
squadron under the command of Captain, afterwards Sir, Bichard 
Munden, proceeding outwards for convoy to the East India home- 
ward-bound fleet. Captain Munden, on learning what had happened 
at St. Helena, resolved to attempt its recapture, and immediately 
with his ships made sail for the Island, arriving there on the 14th 
May, 1673. Being unobserved, and quite unexpected by the Dutch, 
early on the following morning he landed 200 men, under the com- 
mand of Captain Kedgwin, at a spot on the eastern coast, which 
they called Prosperous Bay, and with them also a slave named 
Oliver, who had lately fled from St. Helena with Governor Beale. 
Their landing-place still retains the name of Kedgwin’s Bock. 
Oliver, the slave, being well acquainted with the Island, piloted this 
little army inland up the steep and rugged cliffs until they reached 
an almost insurmountable precipice, which seemed to check their 
further progress, when one of the party named Tom, taking with him 
a ball of twine, and encouraged by the repeated exhortations of his 
companions, achieved the difficult and dangerous task of scaling it. 
By means of his ball of twine, Tom was able to establish a rope com- 
munication to assist his companions up the cliff, and in honour to 
his exploit the place to this day retains the name of “ Holdfast Tom.” 
Captain Kedgwin and his army, having safely ascended the preci- 
pice, were able to gain the heights of Longwood, and proceeding by 
way of Huts Gate, where they obtained food from some cottagers, 
took up a position on the top of Bupert’s Hill, overlooking James- 
town on its eastern side. During all this time Captain Munden, 
with his squadron, was making his way to the northern side of the 
Island, and appearing in front of Fort James just at the same time 
as Captain Kedgwin’s army came up behind it, so astonished the 
Dutch that they immediately surrendered. The English then 
landed, and placing two guns in position on the hill to the eastward 
of Fort James, as a precautionary measure, thus commenced the for- 
tification known to this day as Munden’s Battei’y. This repossession 
by the English was accomplished in so short a space of time, and 
