4 
ST. HELENA. 
Wishing a colony at the Cape of Good Hope, they left St. Helena, and 
the English East India Company, being fully alive to its value, imme- 
diately took possession of it. They held it for ten years, and then 
obtained from King Charles the Second a charter to secure them in 
SOUTH ATLANTIC POST OFFICE OF 1645. 
its further possession. This Company becoming absolute owners of 
the place, at once commenced to establish a small colony. They 
erected fortifications, introduced settlers from England as well as 
new plants and stock, so that a general improvement took place, 
which so excited the covetous desires of its recent possessors, the 
