St Helena
It was a Portuguese admiral, returning with the south-east trades in the sails of his fleet, who discovered this lonely Atlantic outpost, on the feast day of St Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine who had been instrumental in their son's conversion to Christianity. That was on 21 May 1502 and for the next four centuries St Helena flourished as a service port on the sea route from the Indian Ocean to Europe, with successive maritime powers – Portuguese, Dutch, then British – leaving their mark. The British took formal control of the island in 1659 when a charter was granted to the East India Company. Following the passing of the India Act (1833), the island became a crown territory with a Governor, representing the monarch, resident in Plantation House. On our morning tour, we drove through the elegant Main Street of Jamestown, once a bustle of ships' chandlers and merchants – not to mention bars – up to the high summits of the island. There we paid our respects to the Governor's tortoises, including the elderly Jonathan, who proudly inhabits the grounds of Plantation House.
It was in the damp and misty highlands that Napoleon, the most famous resident in the island's history, was put under house arrest following his exile to the island in 1815. "I should have done better to have stayed in Egypt" he remarked after his first year on the island. Longwood House, where he took up residence, and the Tomb of Napoleon – for Napoleon died six years after his arrival – are today under the care of the Republique Française, and a French consul is the sole foreign diplomat permanently resident on the island.
With the demise of the age of the sail, the island has lost its raison d'être. Modern vessels do not need to follow the trade winds and the opening of the Suez Canal killed off the south Atlantic trade. The island lives on its memories: William Dampier, Captain Cook, Darwin and a host of other famous voyagers passed this way. Now the island is seeking a new rôle: a cruise ship terminal perhaps or an airport? Both would be costly projects in hard times and, for now, the necessary investment has not been forthcoming. This is not entirely a bad thing: the charm of the place owes a great deal to its being in something of a time warp. And the rare wire bird – sighted on our optional afternoon ornithological tour – still breeds on meadows that might one day become an airport runway. But as our guide told us this afternoon, speaking for the three thousand island residents: "We're an endangered species too!"
