NAPOLEON’S GARDEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 August 1938, Page 9

NAPOLEON’S GARDEN

STORY FROM ST. HELENA. WHAT TOURISTS SEE. Passengers visiting this sunny island, where Napoleon ended his days in exile are taken off the ship at Lamstocks’ Isle, writes George Hallat from St. Helena to the “New York Times.” In the days when Yamstocks’ was administered by the British East India Company, the natives grew vast numbers of yams for ships calling to and from the East. Hence the nickname. As the ship drops anchor; a motor launch with a few officers, the agent, and one police constable corner alongside. A dozen rowing boats follow, each with two rowers and womenfolk with baskets of native work for sale, or for barter for old clothes, as the islanders are too poor to afford new clothes. The quay where tourists' land is a few steps in the basalt rock. There is no pier or jetty. Each boat has a wooden staff some four feet high, upright in the stern. This the passenger grips when jumping ashore as there is always a swell. In the pellucid water close inshore shoals of little sapphireblue fish may be seen. Ashore a quaint collection of motor vehicles are in wait for passengers. Island transport was by donkey until an enterprising pioneer gave the natives a thrill by introducing the first motorcar nine or ten years ago. More and more cars followed, then came a steam roller, and the stony tracks became roads. Today, with eighty-one cars, St. Helena looks forward to the introduction of traffic lights. In the dry island moat, a landmark of the island, are growing those short thick bananas that are the world’s best for flavour. Passing over the drawbridge, through the portcullised gateway, one comes to the square. The main street rises through the town and then ascends the fertile Jamestown Valley, where yams, mangoes, peaches, loquats, cherrimoyas, and other tropical fruits flourish.

The road winds upward to the Tomblands, Napoleon’s empty grave. The stone slab bears no inscription, a fact for which Sir Hudson Lowe, Governor of the island during Bonaparte's exile, is blamed. Napoleon’s spring of dia-mond-clear water keeps the peaceful little valley beautifully green. Higher up, through a cypress avenue, one reaches Longwood, property of the French Government, 1780 feet above sea level and exposed to the perpetual south-east trades. Here it is often misty and always cool. The French Consul lives in the New House built originally for Napoleon, but never occupied by him. It adjoins the Old House, in which Napoleon breathed his last. In the death chamber is a beautiful white marble head of the Emperor by an unknown sculptor. Other Napoleonic relics are constantly being collected and added by the Societe des Amis de Saint Helene. Napoleon’s garden, which he cultivated so assiduously, is as he left it. • Thunder, lightning, and an absolutely cloudless day are unknown.