S

PREFACE

IR HUDSON LOWE left behind him a very large collection of papers relating to his public career.

Twenty-two volumes have found their way into the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. One hundred and thirty-five rest in the British Museum. Of these, ninety deal with the St. Helena Governorship. They contain Lowe's correspondence with Lord Bathurst; with the Naval Commanders and other high officials in England, St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, and elsewhere; with the Foreign Commissioners at St. Helena; and with Napoleon and his followers; the official orders and proclamations; the reports of officers, military and civil; a large number of letters exchanged between the various officials; and the accounts, lists, pay-sheets, and other official documents. The collection contains documents unfavourable to Sir Hudson Lowe, and many which are of no permanent interest.

This immense mass of first-hand evidence was made the basis for Forsyth's defence of Lowe, published in 1853. In addition there are at the Record Office twenty-nine volumes of reports and other official documents bearing upon Napoleon's detention at St. Helena.

When Forsyth wrote, very little contemporary evidence had been published. The works of O'Meara, Las Cases, Antommarchi, and Montholon, though based upon diaries, were issued after the death of Napoleon, and bear clear evidence of having been prepared with a definite object. We have to turn to them for information as to what went on in the interior of Longwood, but on all controversial subjects they are tainted with deliberate misrepresentation and

falsehood. Apart from that disfigurement, such worked-up material cannot compare in authority with the contemporary records. Even honest reminiscences, such as those of Mrs. Abell, surgeon Henry, chaplain Vernon, the Countess of Montholon, and others, which were written after a lapse of time, have to be read with discrimination.

Forsyth had to rely upon the Lowe manuscripts for most of his facts. Since his day, a quantity of valuable original matter has become available. Extracts from the reports of the Foreign Commissioners to their Courts have been published; and we have had the diary of Lady Malcolm, the private journal of General Gourgaud, and the letters exchanged between Count and Countess Montholon; and a number of letters from British officers have appeared in various magazines. All this is strictly contemporary evidence, taking rank with the documents in the British Museum and Record Office. It is upon these original sources that the story must be based.

A personal acquaintance with the island of St. Helena, and in particular with the house in which Napoleon lived and the grounds in its neighbourhood, is very important for a proper understanding of the Napoleonic detention. Accompanied by Mr. Graham Balfour, the author of the

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Life of R. L. Stevenson," I have spent five weeks in the house that was built for General Bertrand and his family, at Longwood, in 1816. It stands within 118 yards of Napoleon's house, according to our measurement of the distance with a tape. Napoleon's house is now only half its former size; the gardens have disappeared; the wood has been cleared away; there is no camp of red-coated soldiers in the distance. But, in other respects, the scene has not changed, and the five weeks at Longwood have proved of immense value to me, clearing away difficulties and giving a familiarity with the conditions, upon which alone a confident judgment can be founded.

I have to thank Monsieur Roger, the French Consul, who

is in charge of Longwood House and the Tomb, for the plan of New Longwood; the Hon. W. J. Arnold, Colonial Surgeon at St. Helena, for information about the climate; and our host Mr. James Deason, who with his brother, Mr. Fred Deason, farms the Longwood estate, for ready advice and assistance at all times.

The Earl of Bathurst has lent me, for reproduction, the contemporary water-colour of Longwood House, by Basil Jackson, which is in his possession.

The late Earl of Crawford gave me permission to examine, at my leisure, his large collection of Napoleonic manuscripts. The present Earl of Crawford has kindly allowed me to reproduce the pencilled note, made by Dr. Arnott, announcing the death of Napoleon.

The bulk of the illustrations have been furnished by Mr. A. M. Broadley from his well-known collection, which is especially rich in prints and caricatures. Mr. Broadley has also placed at my disposal his manuscripts and his remarkable library of works dealing with the St. Helena captivity. Dr. J. F. Silk has been most kind in permitting me to make use of some of the prints in his large collection.

I have to thank Mr. Graham Balfour for the excellent photographs, which were taken by him on the occasion of our visit, in February, 1914. Mr. Balfour has also drawn for this book the plan of Bertrand's house, the first yet published. His criticisms and suggestions, made on the spot, have been of the greatest service to me.

Dr. Arnold Chaplin has given me the benefit of his professional advice, and he has read the proofs; but he is not to be regarded as responsible for, or as endorsing, anything in this book. Dr. Chaplin's study of the manuscripts in the British Museum and Record Office, and his researches into the careers of the various personages who stood on the St. Helena stage, have made him an exceptional authority, and I am most grateful to him for the generous manner in which he has placed his knowledge at my disposal. By

ingenious and painstaking enquiries Dr. Arnold Chaplin has discovered a number of portraits of St. Helena celebrities. He has kindly given me leave to reproduce some of them from his indispensable vade-mecum, "A St. Helena Who's Who," 1914. The portraits of Dr. Wilks and Dr. Baxter were provided by Dr. J. F. Silk, the great-nephew of Dr. Baxter; that of Sir Thomas Reade came from Mr. Alleyn Reade; of Major Gorrequer from Mr. G. de Gorrequer Griffith; of Captain Ross from his godson Admiral F. R. Boardman, C.B.; of William Balcombe from his granddaughter Mrs. Emmerton; of Admiral Plampin from his nephew Mr. Orbell W. Oakes; of Dr. Shortt from his grandson Major A. G. Shortt; of Dr. Burton from his granddaughter Mrs. Agg; of Dr. Arnott from his niece Mrs. Arnott Collington. Dr. Chaplin has also furnished me with the coloured frontispiece to the second volume, from a picture in his possession.

Mr. G. L. de St. M. Watson, the first writer, since Forsyth, to undertake a serious examination of the Lowe manuscripts -a laborious task-has helped me in various ways. I have also to thank Major Smyth, M.V.O., for assistance with regard to the 20th Regiment, now the Lancashire Fusiliers.

References to the Lowe manuscripts are given under the heading B.M. (British Museum).

The precursor of this work, "Napoleon in Exile: Elba," was published on the 31st March, 1914, one hundred years after the event with which it commenced, the entry of the Allies into Paris on the 31st March, 1814. These volumes, in like manner, are published on the 1st March, 1915, the centenary of the opening point, the landing of Napoleon near Cannes, on the 1st March, 1815.

1st March, 1915.

NORWOOD YOUNG.