Print from steel engraving titled Vue de Jam's Town, published in a volume of L'Univers Pittoresque, Paris, approx. page size 21 x 13 cm, approx. image size 14 x 9 cm, nice hand coloring.

Saint Helena,

island and British colony in the South Atlantic Ocean, 1,200 miles (1,950 km) west of the southwestern coast of Africa. St. Helena has an area of 47 square miles (122 square km), an extreme length (southwest-northeast) of 10.5 miles (17 km), and an extreme breadth of 6.5 miles (10 km). The capital and port is Jamestown. The island of Ascension and the island group of Tristan da Cunha are dependencies of St. Helena.

History

The island was discovered on May 21, 1502, which, in the Eastern church, is the feast day of St. Helena, mother of the Roman emperor Constantine. Its discoverer, Joao da Nova (known as Joao da Nova Castella, or John Newcastle, on the island), was a Spanish navigator in the service of Portugal. The existence of the island was known only to the Portuguese until 1588, when the English navigator Captain Thomas Cavendish visited St. Helena on his return from a voyage around the world. The island soon became a port of call for ships en route between Europe and the East Indies. The Dutch may have occupied St. Helena about 1645-51, but in 1659 the English East India Company took possession of the island. After a brief Dutch occupation in 1673, the East India Company was confirmed in its ownership. By 1673 nearly half the inhabitants were imported slaves, but between 1826 and 1836 all slaves were freed. The remoteness of St. Helena made it attractive to the powers of Europe as a place of exile for Napoleon, and he was confined at Longwood on the island from October 1815 until his death in May 1821. During that period the island was placed under the jurisdiction of the British crown. Subsequently, the East India Company resumed control until 1834, when the authority of the crown was restored. St. Helena remained reasonably prosperous as a busy port of call until about 1870; then steam started replacing sail, and the opening of the Suez Canal (1869) changed the pattern of sea routes. In the early 1960s the development of a telecommunications centre on the island dependency of Ascension and employment there of workers from St. Helena somewhat restored prosperity. St. Helena was given some measure of self-rule through an Order in Council and Royal Instructions in 1966 (effective January 1967) that provided for local executive and legislative councils; this order was replaced by the 1988 constitution (effective January 1989).