ST. HELENA HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL HIS most solitary island, probably an extinct tertiary traversing the South Atlantic Ocean, Ascension, with Green Mountain, and Tristan d'Acunha, with peak 8,000 feet high, being parts of the same range. Geologists have been unable to fix with exactness its chronological position, from the circumstance of its fossils being peculiar to the island, and therefore furnishing no clue to the geological age of the formations in which they occur. The volcanic forces which have produced the complicated disturbances so conspicuous throughout the island must have ceased at a very remote period, as it has evidently retained for ages its existing conformation. At the height of many hundred feet above the level of the sea, shells in considerable numbers are found, embedded in the soil; these shells were formerly supposed to be of marine origin, but a more careful examination has shown them to be (altogether) of a land species, and of a kind no longer found in a living state. Their destruction, which has been imputed to the clearing away of the original forests, is more probably owing to geological causes. The principal component of the island is a dark lava, the successive streams of which are very distinctly marked on the faces of the abrupt cliffs which form the coast. In its central and higher parts, a different series of rocks has, from extreme decomposition, produced a clayey wal, which, where not covered with vegetation, is seen in bright bands of colour. Some of this mud or clay presents a wonderful appearance, the tints being of all shades. On one side is seen the beautiful mauve and violet peculiar to the pansy, on another the shaded reds and pinks of geraniums, and, at a distance, the colourings appear suitable for pigments, but on inspection are found to be of a very coarse nature. In the year 1502, when the island was first discovered by Juan de Nova Castella, the commodore of a Portuguese fleet, the interior was a huge forest, even some of the precipices overhanging the sea being covered with gum wood trees. The day of its discovery was the anniversary of the birthday of Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, so the island by the Portuguese was called St. Helena, a name which it has always retained. In the first record the word is, however, spelt Hellena. These early navigators, always on the outlook to find islands which they could use as watering places for their vessels, and which would generally supply them with vegetables, meat, and fruit, were eager to stock and colonize them. On the occasion of the discovery of St. Helena, we find they were prepared, for they left at the island some goats, asses, and pigs; but at this visit there is no mention of colonization. Eleven years after, a Portuguese fleet called on its way home from India, and left here the first human inhabitant. He was Fernandez Lopez, a nobleman who, having incurred disgrace through desertion, was condemned, and punished to the extent of having his nose, ears, right hand and the little finger of the left hand cut off. We can well imagine he preferred to be left here, rather than to endure the reproach and ignominy which awaited him at home. Thus, he was the first Governor of St. Helena, and, according to the records, was provided with a few negro slaves, pigs, goats, poultry, partridges, guinea-fowl, pheasants, peacocks, vegetables, roots, fig, orange and peach trees. (It is a mystery how the small vessels of that date were able to keep on board all these animals, poultry, and food.) Here he spent four years, being then recalled by Portugal. That nation, however, continued to use the island as a place of call for vessels homeward bound. Captain Cavendish in 1588 anchored off Chapel Valley (Jamestown), and an interesting account of his visit will be found in a later chapter. There were then a few good buildings, and a Roman Catholic Church. He found that the Portuguese had been very successful in introducing useful trees and plants, and that fig, lemon, orange, pomegranate, shaddock, and date trees, as well as parsley, sorrel, mustard, and radishes were plentiful; there were also |