ST. HELENA, 
PART I. — HISTORICAL. 
J^T. HELENA is the most solitary island of the Southern 
Atlantic Archipelago. In 15° 55' south latitude and 5° 49' 
west longitude, alone it stands, in the very midst of the South 
tlantic Ocean, 1140 miles distant from the African Continent on 
°ne side, 1800 from South America on the other, 698 from the 
Island of Ascension, and 4000 from England. No human eye 
ever saw this rocky spot in its primeval grandeur until the 21st 
of May in the year 1502, when one of the earliest and bravest 
na\ igators, Commodore J ohn de Nova Castella, commanding a 
Portuguese fleet on its return from India, discovered it. He found 
there no aborigines, nor was any trace of man’s work to be seen. 
This celebrated voyager with his companions had, however, the 
satisfaction of seeing the Island in all the pristine beauty of its 
native vegetation. Unfortunately in those days it never occurred to 
them to make a collection of its plants, or other productions ; and all 
we know of it at that period is, that rich vegetation clothed its surface, 
the interior being described as an entire forest, with Gfumwood 
and other indigenous trees overhanging some of the sea precipices. 
It requires some amount of faith on the part of the modern traveller, 
when told this, to see in the now dark, frowning, barren, rocky 
outside of St. Helena any probability of its ever having been green 
with verdure ; but there are good reasons for believing the record 
of the discoverers to be correct. An abundance of fresh water, 
running down the valleys into the sea, existed then as now, but 
the only inhabitants seem to have been sea birds, seals, sea lions, 
and turtle ; at least we are not informed of any others, although 
it is elsewhere recorded that one land bird was found there. These 
early navigators were generally on the look out for new islands, and 
B 
