2 
ST. HELENA. 
were quite prepared to stock and to colonize them whenever it 
was their fortune to discover them. The former they were quite 
prepared for on this occasion, by the fact of their having with them, 
and their leaving at the Island, a supply of goats, asses, and hogs, 
hut it does not appear that any human being remained ; nature was 
left in possession to reign alone for eleven years longer, disturbed 
only by the battle which has waged ever since between the goats and 
the native vegetation. 
The day of its discovery being the anniversary of the birthday 
of Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, the island was 
called St. Helena, in honour thereof, by the Portuguese, and has 
retained the same name ever since. 
In the year 1513, the Portuguese, partly with a view to colonize 
the place, and partly, as was their custom, to dispose of a prisoner, 
returned there from India, and left as its first human inhabitant 
Fernandez Lopez, a nobleman, who having incurred disgrace through 
desertion, was so rewarded ; previously he had been mutilated by 
his nose, ears, right hand and little finger of the left hand being cut 
off, and he appeared to prefer this banishment to the reproach which 
he must suffer on being taken home to Europe. He thus had the 
honour of being the first Governor of St. Helena, and was provided 
with a few negro slaves, pigs, goats, poultry, partridges, guinea 
fowl, pheasants, peacocks, vegetables, roots, fig, orange, lemon and 
peach trees. After this poor creature had spent four years in 
cultivating the soil, his Eobinson Crusoe style of life came to an end 
by his removal through orders from Portugal. 
The Portuguese continued to make use of the Island as a place of 
call for homeward bound ships. On the 8th June, 1588, it was 
visited by Captain Cavendish, who anchored his ship off Chapel 
Valley (now James’ Valley), and found there a settlement comprising 
several good buildings and a Eoman Catholic church. The attempts 
of the Portuguese to introduce useful plants had evidently succeeded, 
for fig, lemon, orange, pomegranate, shaddock and date trees were 
then growing there, as well as parsley, sorrel, basil, fennel, aniseed, 
mustard, and radishes; he moreover found partridges, pheasants, 
guinea cocks or turkeys, with a large number of goats and wild 
pigs. Captain Cavendish had a good opportunity of investigat- 
ing the place on this occasion, as it appears that he escaped 
meeting there the Portuguese homeward bound fleet by twenty 
