Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/288

 ships, one from Sweden, and a Dutch sloop-of- war, at anchor. The island of St. Helena is nothing but a large, barren rock, uprisen from the sea, and so steep  that only a short distance from the shores soundings  cannot be obtained with a deep-sea line. The only landing place was Jamestown. The population, at this time, including the garrison, some English gentlemen,  negroes, a few Chinese, and many quadroons, numbered  about four thousand, and all lived in the Valley of  Jamestown. Meats, vegetables, and fruits we found very scarce and extremely dear. Rum, however, was plenty, and quite cheap. It was not made here, but was sent out from New England, America!

St. Helena is celebrated only because of its being the place of Napoleon Bonaparte’s confinement and death.

The following verses about Napoleon I learned when before the mast:



One afternoon a boat’s crew of us ascended Ladder Hill, and visited Longwood, the late residence of