St Helena, BOT

PART THREE

Napoleon’s Final Isle

“‘How far is St. Helena from the field of Waterloo?’

 A near way, a clear way, the ship will take you soon.

 A pleasant place for gentlemen with little left to do.

Rudyard Kipling, “A St. Helena Lullaby,”                                               

It was nearly one hundred days before the residents of St. Helena learned of Emperor Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in June of 1815. Within days of this defeat, Napoleon I abdicated his throne. He evidently believed the British would provide him with some sort of comfortable lodging just beyond the outskirts of London. Instead, he was banished as a prisoner-of-war to the remotest of isles, St. Helena. 

Citizens Prepare for Napoleon’s Arrival 

British authorities advised the 3,500 souls living on St. Helena that they were, from that point on, under the rule of the crown rather than that of the East India Trading Company and that Napoleon would soon arrive on their island. They were now subject to strict regulations enacted to protect their soon-to-be prisoner/neighbor from escape or capture. All efforts to prevent Napoleon from slipping from the long arm of the British law were to be put in place.           

All vessels required formal permission to land, and even the comings and goings of the local fleet of fishermen were restricted to certain hours of the day. A strict curfew was enacted with stiff fines for violators.           

The island’s population virtually doubled overnight with the addition of some 2,000 soldiers plus a naval contingent of 500 sailors, stationed aboard ships guarding Jamestown’s harbor. Ancillary government officials and their families also arrived.           

And in the midst of this collection of humanity was to be the island’s celebrated prisoner, the 46-year-old Napoleon. 

Napoleon Arrives 

October 14, 1815. Napoleon’s ship, escorted by five others filled with soldiers, arrived off St. Helena. He was horrified at the bleakness of the island and the crowds lining the shore, awaiting his arrival. Napoleon’s displeasure was noted in his words, “It is not a pretty place to live. I would have done better to stay in Egypt.”           

Nonetheless, St. Helena was to be his home. And his residence would be Longwood House. Napoleon elected to come ashore in the veil of night, avoiding the scrutiny and curiosity of the crowds, and so he did on October 17th. Even then, some 3,500 gathered to witness the moment he set foot on the island. 

Napoleon’s Life On St. Helena (1815-1821) 

Napoleon, his servants, and his black stallion named “Hope” all made their way to what would become his new home, Longwood House. However, while the home was being refurbished, Napoleon stayed briefly with the Balcombe family in their home, The Briars. He befriended their young daughter, Betsy Balcombe, who later wrote of this extraordinary friendship.             

Trappings from Napoleon’s regal past eventually decorated Longwood House. Dedicated servants performed their chores there as though they were still living in a palace, instead of Longwood. They were among the fifty or more who resided at Longwood House.           

Napoleon’s days were spent riding his horse, dictating his memoirs, learning English (his jailer’s language), overseeing garden projects, and playing chess with pawns resembling the emperor.           

Some 2,000 soldiers established their base camp at Deadwood from where they could observe the prisoner’s every move. He so despised being under such close watch by the soldiers that he ordered carpenters to drill holes in the window shutters so he could observe the soldiers without being seen. Napoleon was pleased to learn that, during his confinement, several of these soldiers were killed when gusts of wind tossed them from their look-out posts.           

Napoleon also walked the grounds, an area confined by four miles of high walls. He even entertained those aristocrats who joined him in exile. He also hoped he would be rescued, however this was not to be. Worse yet, the new commander, Sir Hudson Lowe, created greater misery by restricting access to Napoleon, stepping up his monitoring, and building stronger and bigger fences around the prisoner.           

Napoleon’s days grew bleaker. Several friends and servants returned to France. They were gone forever. Others simply stopped visiting. Napoleon began to decline physically. 

Death Comes to Napoleon 

Was Napoleon poisoned, perhaps by his English physician? Maybe his body just succumbed to cancer. Experts are divided on this issue. But die he did, in Longwood House on May 5th, 1821. His captors then prepared for his burial and for their return to England.           

An autopsy was performed. A plaster mold of Napoleon’s face was made. Strands of his hair were taken to be woven into bracelets. He was dressed in his military uniform and laid out for viewing at Longwood House.           

Then his body was encased in four separate coffins, one inside the other. His funeral procession, literally involving everyone on the island, ultimately reached the Vale of Geranium (also known as the Valley of the Tomb). This final resting place was chosen by Napoleon for it was here that he had gotten his fresh drinking water.           

His body was lowered into the grave. Cannon shots rang out. Soldiers broke off small tree branches as mementos of the occasion. Then everyone departed except the sentries assigned to guard the quiet grave.           

Napoleon’s entourage returned to France, without him. Then, nineteen years after his death, his body was exhumed on October 15, 1840, and he too made his final voyage to France after 25 years on St. Helena. Napoleon I’s body now rests in Paris, in the Hôtel des Invalides.                                                                                                             

St. Helena, BOT

PART TWO

Flourishing, Then Plundered

“‘How far is St. Helena from the Beresina ice?’

An ill way, a chill way, the ice begins to crack.

But not so far for gentlemen who never took advice.”

Rudyard Kipling, “A St. Helena Lullaby,”                                          

Freshened by the southeast Trade Winds, this small speck of land was home to palms and ferns, ebonies and redwood. Home, too, to seals and turtles, sea cows and such. Then, through the dedicated effort and back-breaking labor of one lonely man, Fernando Lopez, the island of St. Helena blossomed into a bountiful oasis in the middle of the Atlantic. 

The Word Spreads 

The legend of Fernando Lopez was well known among sailors during the late 1500s and early 1600s. Tales of a disfigured man who had harvested crops and tended flocks on St. Helena created great curiosity among those who sailed the Atlantic. They were eager to see this oasis for themselves. And sea captains, in search of a spot to take ill crew members ashore for recuperation, called on the island of St. Helena. There, the sick could eat well, regain their vitality, and join the crew of the next vessel to pass by.           

A few rather permanent dwellings were eventually constructed on the island. The faithful even built a small chapel close to the waterfront. But there was never more than a handful of people on the island to worship in this tiny church, for no one actually called St. Helena home after Lopez died in 1546. 

Flocks and Fields 

Conditions were ideal for the fruit trees planted by Lopez and those who followed behind him. Pomegranate trees were plentiful, as were date palms and a variety of citrus trees. These fruits, along with a large assortment of herbs, provided the necessary medicines for crews suffering from scurvy and other maladies.           

The herds of goats and cattle multiplied, as did all the other animals on the island. Eventually, their numbers were so large that they began to devastate the vegetation on the island. And unwanted insects and vermin arrived from passing ships. Rats ravaged the landscape. Goats ripped at the bark of saplings. The domesticated pigs that had escaped into the wild were rooting up just about everything. And giant African spiders tucked up inside banana stalks. Trouble was truly brewing in paradise. 

Flocks and Fields No More 

Captain Thomas Cavendish, sailing under the British flag, came ashore on St. Helena for nearly a fortnight. While there, he successfully charted the island’s position, ultimately revealing it to virtually any sailor with a compass. Again and again the island was decimated by crews who literally uprooted trees, destroyed plants and slaughtered animals in an effort to prohibit future visitors from enjoying the spoils of the land.           

By the time the 17th Century rolled around, this Garden of Eden was in grave peril. All living things near the harbor had been destroyed. Thankfully, one stand of lemon trees further inland (today called Lemon Valley) had initially been spared and was said to still be able to yield as many as 14,000 lemons at a given time. Remember, lemons were essential for the treatment of scurvy which plagued sailors in those days.           

By 1634, fewer than 50 lemon trees were left growing on the entire island of St. Helena. 

A New Era 

The ubiquitous East India Trading Company viewed the island of St. Helena as a base for shipping operations and trade. In the 1670s, they shipped in brave British settlers and slaves from the island of Madagascar. All tolled, the entire population of St. Helena numbered fewer than 100 people.           

These settlers were impoverished people in search of some type of opportunity. And for that reason, they had agreed to live on this windswept speck of land in the center of the sea and attempt to carve out some prosperity. The East India Trading Company ruled them and the island with a heavy hand, taxing residents on their every move. More slaves arrived. Many crops failed because erosion had stripped away the topsoil. Animals grew thinner and thinner.           

St. Helena’s port of Jamestown was little more than shacks and brothels. Then word arrived that, following his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon would be exiled to St. Helena. And a new chapter began.                                                                                                              

St. Helena, BOT

PART ONE

Early History

            “‘How far is St. Helena from the Capes of Trafalgar?’

            A longish way, a longish way, with ten year more to run.

            It’s South across the water underneath a falling star.”                       

            Rudyard Kipling, “A St. Helena Lullaby,”                                                                                                                

The island of St. Helena is, in a word, remote. Some say that this island is further away from anything else than anywhere else in the entire world. So remote is St. Helena that most world travelers have never set foot here. Or, even spotted it in the distance from a passing ship. It is only the most dedicated globetrotter who will somehow manage to wander ashore on St. Helena, for it is found indisputably on the road less traveled.

Brazil lies 1,800 miles to the west of St. Helena. Alexandria, Angola 1,200 miles to the east. Even the nearest landfall, Ascension Island, is found a distant 700 miles away. And St. Helena is not much of a landfall itself, for it measures a mere ten miles by six miles. However, for a speck of land in the middle of absolute nowhere, it has experienced a very, very interesting history.

Portuguese Navigators

The Portuguese Admiral João da Nova Castella was returning to his homeland from India with three small vessels under his command when he spotted land on the distant horizon. It was on the 21st of May, 1502, the anniversary of the birth of Emperor Constantine the Great’s mother. Da Nova named this jagged little island in the vast Atlantic “St. Helena” in honor of this great birthday, and sent a scouting party ashore.          

As was customary in those days, the crew released several goats to live on the island and multiply. They and their offspring would provide meat for passing sailors who needed provisions in the future. In fact, these animals flourished prolifically for there were no natural predators on the island.

The Island’s First Resident

Fernando Lopez was Portuguese and of noble descent. Along with General d’Alboquerque, the commanding officer of the operation, and a company of soldiers, Lopez sailed to the Indian city of Goa in the early days of the 16th Century. Their mission was to claim this vast and rich continent for Portugal and its royal family. Once ashore, their reception from the Indian people was less than friendly. Following a short but intense skirmish with the local residents, a decision was made to leave Lopez and a few men behind in Goa to take command of the people and protect the fortress they had captured.

General d’Alboquerque returned to Portugal to recruit more soldiers and take on more munitions. During his two-year absence, not only had Lopez failed to control the Goans, he had become quite sympathetic to them. He even converted to Islam.

When D’Alboquerque eventually returned to Goa and discovered Lopez’s treason, he mandated a brtual punishment. The penalty for Lopez’s crimes was something called “scaling the fish” and was swift but severe. The prisoner’s head, brows, and beard were plucked. His ears and nose were cut off. So were his left thumb and right hand. Ashamed and remorseful, Lopez fled into the hills until his countrymen sailed away.

Following an anguished three-year period of hiding in the outskirts of Goa, Lopez returned to the port and was taken aboard a ship bound for Portugal. This vessel stopped in St. Helena for provisions and while there, Lopez, fearing shame for his family, decided to stay behind and not reboard the ship. He again ran off into the countryside and evaded those sailors who had been sent to search for him.

The ship’s crew ultimately sailed away, but left behind some dried meat and other food to sustain Lopez for a period of time. He supplemented this food with fish he caught, goats he slaughtered, berries he gathered, and eggs he retrieved from shorebirds’ and turtles’ nests.

Over the years, other sailors passing by left behind for Lopez seeds, fruit trees, and a barnyard full of animals including turkeys, cats, ducks, dogs, and bullocks. His veritable Garden of Eden flourished for St. Helena’s soil was rich, the rains were plentiful, and the conditions were perfect for crops and herds. 

Whenever sailors from a passing vessel came ashore, Lopez always hid deep in the forests. Eventually Portugal’s royalty learned of this man and his terrible plight. And, despite grave misgivings, Lopez agreed to travel to Portugal on a ship and meet the King and Queen at their official residence in Lisbon. Granting his wish, they arranged for him to meet privately in Rome with the Pope, to confess his sins. There, he pleaded with the Pope to be returned to his life of seclusion on St. Helena.  

Fernando Lopez’s wish was granted and he was returned to St. Helena where he lived out his self-imposed exile. Death came to this disfigured, disgraced man of lonely isolation in the year 1546. Yet, today, his story is kept alive by the people of St. Helena who view him as the island’s most resilient individual among a cast of some pretty impressive characters.