Saint Helena 

Saint Helena is a British Overseas Territory locatedin the SouthAtlantic Ocean. It consists of a remote volcanic tropicalisland lying some 1,950 kilometres (1,210 mi) west of thecoast of southwestern Africa, and 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) eastof Rio deJaneiro on the South American coast. It is one ofthree constituent parts of the British Overseas Territories of Saint Helena, Ascensionand Tristan da Cunha.^[3]

Saint Helena measures about 16 by 8 kilometres (10 by 5 mi)and has a population of 4,534 (2016 census).^[2] Itwas named after Saint Helena of Constantinople. It isone of the most isolated islands in the world and was uninhabited whendiscovered by the Portuguese in 1502. It was animportant stopover for ships sailing to Europe from Asia and SouthernAfrica for centuries. Saint Helena is the United Kingdom'ssecond-oldest overseas territory after Bermuda.

Early history (1502–1658)

Most historical accounts state that the island was sighted on 21May 1502 by Galician navigator João daNova sailing in the service of Portugal, andthat he named it Santa Helena after Saint Helena of Constantinople. A paperpublished in 2015 observes that 21 May is probably a Protestant rather than aCatholic or Orthodox feast day, and the date was first quoted in 1596 by Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, who wasprobably mistaken because the island was discovered several decades beforethe Reformation andthe start of Protestantism.^[4][5][6] Analternative discovery date of 3 May is suggested as being historically morecredible; it is the Catholic feast day of the finding of the TrueCross by Saint Helena in Jerusalem, andcited by Odoardo Duarte Lopes^[7] and Sir Thomas Herbert.^[8]

Portuguese Viceroy Francisco de Almeida passedthe island in 1505 but could not land - other Portuguese explorerswho landed at an earlier date include João daNova in 1502 and Estêvão da Gama in1503.

Another theory holds that the island found by da Nova wasactually Tristanda Cunha, 2,430 kilometres (1,510 mi) to thesouth,^[9] andthat Saint Helena was discovered by some of the ships attached to the squadronof the Estêvão da Gama expeditionon 30 July 1503 (as reported in the account of clerk ThoméLopes).^[10][11][12] ThoméLopes mapped St Helena's geographic position with reasonable accuracy when hequoted its distance and direction with respect to locations such as Ascension,Cape Verde, São Tomé and the Cape of Good Hope. The island's map location withrespect to Ascension and the Cape of Good Hope was likewise described followingthe 1505 Portuguese expedition led by Francisco de Almeida whichpassed the island on its home voyage but did not land - "[o]n thetwenty-first day of July we saw land, and it was an island lyng six hundred andfifty miles from the Cape, and called Saint Helena, howbeit we could not landthere. [...] And after we left the island of Saint Helena, we saw anotherisland two hundred miles from there, which is called Ascension".^[13]

When Linschoten arrived on 12 May 1589 he reported seeingcarvings made by visiting seamen on a fig tree that were dated as early as1510.^[14] ThePortuguese probably planted saplings rather than mature trees, and for these tobe sufficiently large by 1510 to carry carvings suggests the plants wereshipped to the island and planted there some years earlier, possibly within afew years of discovery.

A third discovery story, told by the 16th-centuryhistorian GasparCorreia, holds that the island was found by the Portuguese nobleman andwarrior Dom Garcia deNoronha, who sighted the island on his way to India in late 1511 orearly 1512. His pilots entered the island onto their charts and it has beensuggested that this event was likely decisive in leading to the utilisation ofthe island as a regular stopover for rest and replenishment for ships en routefrom India to Europe, from that date until well into the seventeenth century.^[15] Ananalysis has been published of the Portuguese ships arriving at St Helena inthe period 1502–1613.^[16]

The Portuguese found the island uninhabited, with an abundanceof trees and fresh water. They imported livestock, fruit trees and vegetables,and built a chapel and one or two houses. The long tradition that João da Novabuilt a chapel from one of his wrecked carracks has been shown to be based on amisreading of the records.^[17] Theyformed no permanent settlement, but the island was an important rendezvouspoint and source of food for ships travelling by CapeRoute from Asia to Europe, and frequently sick mariners wereleft on the island to recover before taking passage on the next ship to call atthe island.^[18]

Englishman Sir Francis Drake probablylocated the island on the final leg of his circumnavigation of the world(1577–1580).^[19] Furthervisits by other English explorers followed and, once Saint Helena'slocation was more widely known, English ships of war began to lie in wait inthe area to attack Portuguese India carracks on their way home.^[20]

In developing their Far East trade, the Dutch alsobegan to frequent the island. The Portuguese and Spanish soon gave up regularlycalling at the island, partly because they used ports along the WestAfrican coast, but also because of attacks on their shipping, thedesecration of their chapel and religious icons, killings of their livestock,and destruction of their plantations by Dutch pirates.^[20]

The DutchRepublic formally claimed Saint Helena in1633, although there is no evidence that they ever occupied it. The Dutch lostinterest in the island after establishing theircolony at the Cape ofGood Hope.^[20]

East India Company (1658–1815)

In 1657, Oliver Cromwell granted the East India Company acharter to govern Saint Helena and, the following year, the companydecided to fortify the island and settle it with planters.^[21] Atradition, which had its origins in the early 20th century, that the earlysettlers included many who had lost their homes in the 1666 Great Fire ofLondon, was shown to be a myth in 1999.^[22]

The first governor, Captain John Dutton, arrived in 1659, makingSaint Helena one of Britain's earliest colonies outside NorthAmerica and the Caribbean. A fort and houses were built.After the Restoration ofthe English monarchy in 1660, the East India Company received a royalcharter, giving it the sole right to fortify and colonise the island.The fort was renamed James Fort and the town Jamestown, inhonour of the Duke ofYork, later King James II.^[20]

Between January and May 1673, the Dutch East India Company seizedthe island, but English reinforcements restored East India Company control. Thecompany experienced difficulty attracting new immigrants, and there was unrestand rebellion among the inhabitants. Ecological problems, such as deforestation, soilerosion, vermin and drought, led Governor Isaac Pyke to suggest in 1715that the population be moved to Mauritius, but that was not acted upon andthe company continued to subsidise the community because of the island'sstrategic location. A census in 1723 recorded 1,110 inhabitants, including 610slaves.

Eighteenth-century governors tried to tackle the island'sproblems by planting trees, improving fortifications, eliminating corruption,building a hospital, tackling the neglect of crops and livestock, controllingthe consumption of alcohol, and introducing legal reforms. The island enjoyed alengthy period of prosperity from about 1770. Captain JamesCook visited the island in 1775 on the final leg of his secondcircumnavigation of the world. St. James' Church wasbuilt in Jamestown in 1774, and Plantation House in1791–1792; the latter has since been the official residence of the Governor.

EdmondHalley visited Saint Helena on leaving the University of Oxford in1676, and set up an astronomical observatory with a 7.3-metre-long(24 ft) aerialtelescope, intending to study the stars of the Southern Hemisphere.^[23] Thesite of this telescope is near Saint Mathew's Church inHutt's Gate in the Longwood district.The 680-metre (2,230 ft)-high hill there is called Halley's Mount.

Throughout that period, Saint Helena was an important port ofcall of the East India Company. EastIndiamen would stop there on the return leg oftheir voyages to British India and China. AtSaint Helena, ships could replenish supplies of water and provisions and,during wartime, form convoys that would sail under the protection of vessels ofthe RoyalNavy. Captain James Cook's ship HMS Endeavour anchoredand resupplied off the coast of Saint Helena in May 1771 on its return from theEuropean discovery of the east coast of Australia andthe rediscovery of NewZealand.^[24]

The importation of slaves was made illegal in 1792. Governor RobertPatton (1802–1807) recommended that the company import workers from China tosupplement the rural workforce. They started arriving in 1810, and theirnumbers had reached 600 by 1818. Many were allowed to stay, and theirdescendants became integrated into the population. An 1814 census recorded3,507 people on the island.

British rule (1815–1821) and Napoleon's exile

In 1815, the British government selected Saint Helena as theplace of exile for NapoleonBonaparte following his escape from Elba; the initiallocation of his forced exile.^[25] Hewas taken to the island in October 1815. Napoleon stayed at the Briars pavilion on the grounds ofthe Balcombefamily's home until his permanent residenceat LongwoodHouse was completed in December 1815. He died there on 5 May1821.^[26]

British East India Company (1821–1834)

After Napoleon's death, the thousands of temporary visitors werewithdrawn and the East India Company resumed full control of Saint Helena.Between 1815 and 1830, the EIC made the packet schooner St Helena availableto the government of the island, which made multiple trips per year between theisland and the Cape, carrying passengers both ways and supplies of wine andprovisions back to the island. Napoleon praised Saint Helena's coffee duringhis exile on the island, and the product enjoyed a brief popularity in Paris inthe years after his death.^{[citation needed]}

The importation of slaves to Saint Helena was banned in 1792,and the phased emancipation of over 800 resident slaves took place in 1827, somesix years before the British parliament passed legislation to abolish slaveryin the colonies.^[27]

Between 1791 and 1833, Saint Helena became the site of a seriesof experiments in conservation, reforestation, and attempts to boost rainfallartificially.^[28] Thisenvironmental intervention was closely linked to the conceptualisation of theprocesses of environmental change and helped establish the roots ofenvironmentalism.^[28]

Crown colony (1834–1981)

 Under the provisions of the 1833 India Act,control of Saint Helena passed from the East India Company to the BritishCrown, and it became a crown colony.^[1] Subsequentadministrative cost-cutting triggered a long-term population decline: those whocould afford to do so tended to leave the island for better opportunitieselsewhere. The latter half of the 19th century saw the advent of steamships notreliant on trade winds, as well as the diversion of Far East trade away from thetraditional South Atlantic shippinglanes to a route via the Red Sea (which,prior to the building of the Suez Canal, involved ashort overland section). So the number of ships calling at the island fell from1,100 in 1855 to only 288 in 1889.^[20]

In 1840, a British naval station established to suppressthe Atlantic slave trade wasbased on the island, and between 1840 and 1849 over 15,000 freed slaves, knownas "Liberated Africans", were landed there.^[20]

In 1858, the French emperor NapoleonIII purchased, in the name of the French government, LongwoodHouse and the lands around it, the last residence of NapoleonI (who died there in 1821). It is still French property,administered by a French representative and under the authority of theFrench Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On 11 April 1898 American JoshuaSlocum, on his solo round-the-world voyage, arrived at Jamestown. Hedeparted on 20 April 1898 for the final leg of his circumnavigation, havingbeen extended hospitality by the governor, His Excellency Sir R A Standale. Hepresented two lectures on his voyage and was invited to Longwood by the FrenchConsular agent.^[29]

In 1900 and 1901, over 6,000 Boer prisonerswere held on the island, notably PietCronjé and his wife after their defeat at Battle of Paardeberg.^[30][31] Theresulting population reached an all-time high of 9,850 in 1901.

A local industry manufacturing fibre from NewZealand flax was successfully re-established in 1907and generated considerable income during the FirstWorld War. Ascension Island was made a dependency ofSaint Helena in 1922, and Tristan da Cunha followed in 1938. Duringthe SecondWorld War, the United States built Wideawake airport onAscension in 1942, but no military use was made of Saint Helena exceptmaintenance of its defences.^[32]

During this period, the island enjoyed increased revenues fromthe sale of flax, with prices peaking in 1951. However, the industry declinedbecause of transport costs and competition from synthetic fibres. The decisionby the British Post Office to use synthetic fibres forits mailbags was a further blow, contributing to the closure of the island'sflax mills in 1965.

From 1958, the UnionCastle shipping line gradually reduced its service calls to theisland. Curnow Shipping, based in Avonmouth, replaced the Union-Castle Linemailship service in 1977, using the RMS (RoyalMail Ship) St Helena which wasintroduced in 1989.

The British Nationality Act 1981 reclassifiedSaint Helena and the other Crown colonies as British Dependent Territories. Theislanders lost their right of abode in Britain. For thenext 20 years, many could find only low-paid work with the island government,and the only available employment outside Saint Helena was on the FalklandIslands and Ascension Island. The Development andEconomic Planning Department (which still operates) was formed in 1988 tocontribute to raising the living standards of the people of Saint Helena.

In 1989, Prince Andrew launchedthe replacement RMS St Helena toserve the island; the vessel was specially built for the Cardiff–Cape Town routeand featured a mixed cargo/passenger layout.

The Saint Helena Constitution took effect in 1989 andprovided that the island would be governed by a Governor, Commander-in-Chief,and an elected executive and legislative council. In 2002, the British Overseas Territories Act2002 granted full British citizenship to the islanders, andrenamed the dependent territories (including Saint Helena) the British OverseasTerritories. In 2009, Saint Helena and its two territories received equalstatus under a new constitution, and the British Overseas Territory wasrenamed Saint Helena, Ascensionand Tristan da Cunha.

Located in the South Atlantic Ocean onthe Mid-Atlantic Ridge, morethan 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) from the nearest major landmass, SaintHelena is one of the most remote places in the world. The nearest port on thecontinent is Moçâmedes insouthern Angola;connections to Cape Town in South Africa are used for most shipping needs, suchas the cargo boat that serves the island, the MS Helena.

The island is associated with two other isolated islands in thesouthern Atlantic, also British territories: AscensionIsland about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) due northwest in moreequatorial waters and Tristan da Cunha, which is well outsidethe tropics 2,430 kilometres (1,510 mi) to the south. The island issituated in the Western Hemisphere andhas the same longitude as Cornwall inthe United Kingdom. Despite its remote location, it is classified as beingin WestAfrica by the United Nations.

The island of Saint Helena is 122 km² (47 sq mi)in area, and is composed largely of rugged terrain of volcanic origin (the lastvolcanic eruptions occurred about 7 million years ago).^[33] Coastalareas are covered in volcanic rock and are warmer and drier than the centre.The highest point of the island is Diana's Peak at 818 m(2,684 ft). In 1996 it became the island's first nationalpark. Much of the island is covered by NewZealand flax, a legacy of former industry, but there aresome original trees augmented by plantations, including those of the MillenniumForest project, which was established in 2002 to replant part of the lost GreatWood and is now managed by the Saint Helena National Trust. TheMillennium Forest is being planted with indigenous gumwood trees.

When the island was discovered, it was covered with uniqueindigenous vegetation, including a remarkable cabbagetree species. The island's hinterland must have been a densetropical forest but the coastal areas were probably also quite green. Themodern landscape is very different, with widespread bare rock in the lowerareas, although inland it is green, mainly due to introduced vegetation. Thereare no native land mammals, but cattle, cats, dogs, donkeys, goats, mice,rabbits, rats and sheep have been introduced, and native species have beenadversely affected as a result. The dramatic change in landscape must beattributed to these introductions. As a result, the string tree (Acalypha rubrinervis) and theSaint Helena olive (Nesiotaelliptica) are now extinct, and many of the otherendemic plants are threatened with extinction.

There are several rocks and islets off the coast, including:Castle Rock, Speery Island, the Needle, Lower Black Rock, Upper Black Rock(South), Bird Island (Southwest), Black Rock, Thompson's Valley Island, PeakedIsland, Egg Island, Lady's Chair, Lighter Rock (West), Long Ledge (Northwest),Shore Island, George Island, Rough Rock Island, Flat Rock (East), the Buoys,Sandy Bay Island, the Chimney, White Bird Island and Frightus Rock (Southeast),all of which are within one kilometre (0.62 miles) of the shore.

The national bird ofSaint Helena is the Saint Helena plover, knownlocally as the wirebird, on account of its wire-like legs. It appears onthe coat of arms of Saint Helena andon the flag.