Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
For his second place of exile, Napoleon's opponents chose one of the most remote places
on Earth, the island of St Helena. Lying in the Atlantic Ocean almost 1,200 miles west of
the coast of Africa and controlled by the British East India Company, the island was already
fortified and relatively easy to defend. During Napoleon's exile, the British government took
a direct role in the administration of St Helena. An army officer called Sir Hudson Lowe was
appointed as the island's governor, reporting to the Secretary of State for War and the Colon-
ies. Although Lowe had been carefully chosen as a suitable guardian for the former emperor,
relations between the two men were always fractious. The East India Company resumed full
control of St Helena when Napoleon died in 1821 but relinquished it to the Colonial Office
in 1834. It remains a British overseas territory today.
This map of St Helena was produced and sold as a souvenir commemorating the defeat of
the United Kingdom's arch-enemy. Designed by Lieutenant R P Read and dedicated to the
Duke of Kent (whose daughter later became Queen Victoria), it shows the island's rugged
terrain, agricultural estates and main residences. The map is dissected and mounted on cloth
so that it could readily be folded for storage. A note on the back of our copy reveals that it
was formerly owned by Edward Vigers - a London-based surveyor and architect whose first
wife, Flora Alexander, came from St Helena - and given to the Colonial Office on 18 August
1911.
The first edition of the map, dated 1815, was apparently rushed into print and contains a
mistake. It labels Plantation House as the former emperor's residence and Longwood House
as Governor Lowe's home. Later editions were corrected to show that the reverse was true.
Napoleon would doubtless have preferred to live at Plantation House, for he disliked Long-
wood, complaining that it was damp and unhealthy. Now owned by the French government,
the house has become a museum dedicated to St Helena's best known former resident.
