St Helena

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St Helena, a volcanic island in the South Atlantic, is 1,200 miles from Africa and 1,800 from South America. With a length and breadth of 10 miles by 6, it is roughly the size of Jersey. The East India Company took possession of it in 1659 as a port of call and it has been a British colony ever since. The capital is Jamestown and the population more than 5,000. The British government, much exercised after Waterloo to know what to do with their unwelcome guest the Emperor Napoleon, found it more secure than Elba, from which he had escaped without difficulty. Lord Liverpool described it as ‘particularly healthy’ and ‘the safest station that could be found’. Bonaparte spent the last six years of his life at Longwood, under the anxious supervision of the governor, Sir Hudson Lowe.

J. A. Cannon

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Jamestown (port)

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