Saint Helena's Ghost
How Napoleon's Exile Continues to Haunt History
Introduction
Napoleon Bonaparte, one of history's most iconic figures, faced a peculiar destiny following his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The fall of the French Emperor, a man who once commanded legions across Europe, culminated not in grandeur but in seclusion on the remote island of Saint Helena. This narrative transcends a mere exile; it unveils the intricacies of Napoleon's life during his tenure on this isolated outpost in the South Atlantic.
Arrival: Dusk Arrival and Initial Impressions
Imagine the scene: the HMS Northumberland, a vessel that once sailed triumphant seas, approached the shores of Saint Helena under the cover of dusk. Onboard, a man who once held the reins of power in Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte, disembarked discreetly, determined not to unveil his arrival in the glaring light of day. His first encounter with this secluded island was marred by disdain as he uttered with bitterness, "it is an unlovely place," upon stepping foot into the quaint settlement of Jamestown. His first lodging on the island offered him no greater solace.
Early Days: Briar's Pavilion and Strategic Significance
In the initial throes of exile, Napoleon found temporary refuge in Briar's Pavilion, courtesy of William Balcombe, an East India Company employee. Beyond being a host's residence, Saint Helena was historically significant, serving as a crucial juncture for Transatlantic trade. Discovered by the Portuguese in the early 16th century, this remote outpost became a strategic rendezvous for maritime commerce between Asia and Europe. The island's importance resonated through its Dutch and later, East India Company ownership, underscoring its pivotal role in global maritime routes.
The strategic significance of Saint Helena also extended to its physical defence. High Knoll Fort, a sentinel overseeing Jamestown, stood sentinel atop a steep promontory, once designed to defend the island against potential French rescue missions. Even as Napoleon resided at Briar's Pavilion, nestled at the base of this fortification, he remained under constant surveillance by its watchful sentries.
Transition to Longwood: Exile Conditions and Relationship with the British
After a transient stay at Briar's Pavilion, Napoleon's abode shifted to Longwood House in December 1815. The change of residences was intended to allow more privacy, but Napoleon found little relief upon arriving at Longwood. While the move offered more space and seclusion, the house itself was shrouded in discomfort. Reports portrayed it as damp, chilly, and, from the British perspective, significantly more secure, ensuring stringent oversight over the once indomitable emperor.
While Napoleon retained the liberty to traverse the island in the company of a British officer, he chose to confine himself mostly within the confines of Longwood's walls. His days were not bereft of activity; the former emperor spent time cultivating the grounds, indulging in extensive baths, engaging in literature, writing, dictating, and endeavouring to master the English language.
The emperor's new realm at Longwood, however, bore witness to a tumultuous relationship between Napoleon and the Governor of Saint Helena, Sir Hudson Lowe. The governor, devoid of addressing Napoleon by his imperial titles, strained their interaction. Lowe's treatment of his captive veered toward a more stringent demeanour, contributing to escalating tensions that remained throughout Napoleon's time on the island.
Challenges and Controversies: Napoleon's Health and Claims of Ill-Treatment
Amidst the confines of his isolated existence, Napoleon faced health issues, triggering allegations of mistreatment. As signs of illness surfaced, two dismissed doctors, Barry O’Meara and John Stokoe, cited concerns about Napoleon's well-being. O’Meara’s 1822 publication raised suspicions that the conditions imposed hastened the former emperor's death.
The allegations underscored the ongoing debate regarding Napoleon's demise. His deteriorating health led to speculations that the environment and the treatment meted out to him were contributory factors. Disputes arose over the circumstances leading to his death, perpetuating controversies that lingered for decades.
Cultural and Intellectual Pursuits: Legacy of Napoleon's Exile
Despite the trying circumstances, Even in his final days, Napoleon's intellect remained active. Several of his closest aides, including Emmanuel, Comte de Las Cases, General Gaspard Gourgaud, and Comte Charles de Montholon, spent long hours in discussion with their emperor, carefully documenting their conversations. These accounts delved into Napoleon's political philosophy, career reflections, and the conditions of his exile, revealing a multi-layered perspective of his final years.
The ex-emperor's exile also witnessed a notable literary pursuit. Lady Holland, the wife of a high-ranking British opposition politician, sent parcels of books to Napoleon, adding to his considerable collection. This gesture, rooted in considering Napoleon as a prisoner of State rather than War, underlined the intellectual pursuits that continued amidst his exile.
Tensions and the End: Napoleon's Death and Repatriation
Napoleon's tensions with the British authorities remained unresolved by the twilight of his life on Saint Helena. His wish to transfer to a healthier location was unheeded, deepening the strain between the ex-emperor and his captors.
Napoleon Bonaparte passed away on May 5, 1821, at 51. In his final moments, he reconnected with the Catholic Church and received the last rites from Father Angelo Vignali. The autopsy reports from both British and French examinations concluded that the former Emperor succumbed to stomach, intestinal, and liver ailments.
Following public display for two days, Napoleon's body found its initial resting place in the Sane Valley on Saint Helena. However, his desire to rest among the people of France was posthumously honoured. In 1840, at the behest of the July Monarchy, his remains were exhumed and repatriated to France, finding their final abode beneath the dome of the Place des Invalides.
The Legacy and Contested Narratives: Speculations Surrounding Napoleon's Exile
The passage of time has not quelled the contentious narratives and debates surrounding Napoleon's exile. Various theories, including claims of murder by poisoning, persisted long after his death. Disputes over the conditions of his captivity, his treatment by the British authorities, and the potential implications on his health and demise continue to be subjects of historical conjecture and divergent interpretations.
Napoleon’s final exile to Saint Helena, a chapter in history embedded in controversy and legend, remains a subject of fascination and scholarly inquiry, stirring debate and reflection on the complexities of power, captivity, and historical narratives.
Conclusion: Napoleon's Exile - A Complex Epilogue
Napoleon Bonaparte's exile to Saint Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic, marks a poignant chapter in history, encapsulating the complexities of power, captivity, and historical legacy. His arrival on the island, the constraints of his captivity, and the intellectual pursuits amidst adversity paint a vivid picture of an ex-emperor grappling with his circumstances.
The intricacies of Napoleon's interactions with British authorities, his contentious relationship with Governor Sir Hudson Lowe, and the debates surrounding his health and eventual demise continue to captivate historians and enthusiasts alike, sparking debates that echo across generations.
The legacy of Napoleon's exile extends far beyond his death, leaving a contested narrative shrouded in speculation, historical inquiry, and conflicting interpretations. The lingering debates surrounding the conditions of his captivity and the circumstances of his passing add layers to an already complex historical figure, inviting continuous reflection on the nature of power, historical accounts, and the human experience.
As time unfolds, Napoleon's exile to Saint Helena remains an enduring tale, a convergence of political intrigue, personal struggle, and the enigmatic aura of one of history's most eminent figures, inviting a never-ending pursuit of understanding and reevaluation.
About the Creator
Richard Clements
Unearthing the Mysteries of History, Crime, and the Unknown
Delve into the captivating world of history, crime, and mystery through factual writing. Explore the past, unravel human behavior, and solve enigmas.
Enjoyed the story? Support the Creator.
Subscribe for free to receive all their stories in your feed. You could also pledge your support or give them a one-off tip, letting them know you appreciate their work.
Keep reading
More stories from Richard Clements and writers in History and other communities.
Tales of Peace in Times of War
Introduction On the cusp of the 20th century, the world became embroiled in a conflict of unprecedented scale and brutality—the Great War. This seismic event, later known as World War I, engulfed nations, reshaping political boundaries and societal norms. The Western Front, a major theatre of the war, bore witness to some of its most harrowing episodes. Here, long, snaking trenches filled with soldiers became symbols of a grim stalemate, embodying the gritty reality of war in all its rawness.
By Richard Clements6 months ago in History
CIRCLES
Of all the rabbit holes I get stuck in on the internet I don’t know any quite as powerful as Google Earth. Seeing beautiful patterns from above... Dropping down into street view... And seeing the planet in ways I would never get to see in person. So when I came across this post on Reddit, I was fascinated. It described “undocumented markings” in Algeria, in the middle of the Sahara near a location called “Tebalbalet tomb.” Visible on Google Earth. There were 22 of them, each with 12 “surrounding things”, 42 meters in diameter 420 meters apart, at longitude 4'20 East. It almost sounded like a joke. But then I copied the coordinates and I looked. There they were: identical circles in an almost perfect line. 160 kilometers from any signs of life in the world’s largest desert... in the middle of the biggest country in Africa. This is a story about the limits of what you can find out on the internet. About all the different ways of looking at the same thing. And about going all the way there. Over the course of the last 20 weeks, we filmed every step of the process as we tried to figure out one thing... What could these circles be? So this whole story starts back in September 2021 when I first saw the Reddit post. I wanted to figure out what these “markings” were and make a video out of the entire reporting process. No matter how long it took. Because the answer had to be out there. And, step one, I knew I was going to have to send some emails. For weeks, I reached out to everyone I could think of: Algerian experts, officials, tour groups... even the closest hotel, in a city called Aïn Salah. I read up on the town the circles were located closest to: Foggaret Ezzaouia. I asked the commenters on the Reddit post... and we even tracked down a Twitter account we thought was the same Will K who posted this question to several subreddits before deleting his Reddit account. I tried English and French... organizations, academics, locals... And then... I waited. But there was one easy thing to clear up first. Were these circles real? Or were they just some kind of satellite imaging glitch? So I asked a teammate who works with maps a lot: Sam, he produces our series Atlas. And he pointed me to the company that takes a lot of the satellite pictures for Google Earth: Maxar Technologies. I feel very confident that those are indeed on the ground because we see them in multiple images over multiple years. So, I know it wasn't an artifact of the processing that Google might have done with our imagery. And then a colleague of mine who has spent a decent amount of time studying this area said, “You know, this is a very rich area for oil and gas.” “This looks very similar to what we see when they're doing oil exploration.” Oil radically changed the course of Algeria’s history. "Oil from the wastelands of the desert..." "And it's believed that the Sahara is immensely rich in it." When oil and gas were discovered there in 1956, companies flocked to the region against the backdrop of a brutal decolonization war with France. Today, Algeria is one of the world’s top exporters of natural gas. What Steve is talking about here is seismic surveys where geophysicists analyze the Earth’s surface by sending shock waves into the ground. Depending on how those seismic waves bounce back researchers can tell what resources can be extracted from underground. Steve thought that, maybe, seismic pulses from a specialized vehicle could produce something like this. So, we had a hypothesis. But I wanted a second opinion. So I asked Bob Hardage at the University of Texas one of the world’s leading experts on seismic imaging. He responded by email: ”I can assure you with 100-percent confidence that the features in this imagery are not seismic arrays used in oil and gas exploration.” First, the shapes themselves weren’t right. “...there will be hundreds of thousands of receivers positioned as either a single straight line or as hundreds of parallel straight lines.” I looked up pictures from NASA of seismic surveying and you can see what he means. Second: the fact that we could even see them meant they probably weren’t a seismic survey. “... the objective is to leave the landscape like you found it." "If a seismic crew created something like these features a return visit would be made to restore the landscape.” “I have no idea what the circles in the satellite image are." "Whatever they are, the people who created them wanted those features to be permanent.” “Closeout: I don’t think we need to chat.” Thanks Bob. So I kept Googling. I found geotagged pictures from the nearest municipality, Foggaret Ezzaouia on a site called mapio.net. These old stone wells sorta looked like they could be arranged in a circle. But reverse image searches were a dead end. I didn’t know what to do next. So we looped in Vox video’s senior researcher, Melissa, to help me out. So, I was trying to find what this thing was. I don't know if you remember from his original post he calls it the Tebalbalet tomb. Do you remember that? So I found this article. This is from like 1985 — I mean, not 1985: 1885. The “Well of Tebalbalet” is at the latitude 27°20 and longitude 4°38. And that's approximately where what we're looking at is. And it says there are two circular tumuli. I had to Google that, I don't know that word. -Tumuli. What's a tumulus. Tumulus. It's an ancient burial mound. Which seems... that sounds about right. “... encompassed by two concentric mounds in the form of rings, all of great regularity." "The two rings are respectively 30 and 21 meters in diameter, from crest to crest.” So a document from 1885 said that, around this same area, there were 1) a bunch of wells, and 2) tombs with “rings of great regularity.” Now, the sketches weren’t an exact match. But they got us thinking: what if these things were actually really old? So I sent the pictures to a Tunisian archaeologist who had done research in this area. We spoke in French because of decades of French occupation in the 19th and 20th centuries French is still used in many contexts in Tunisia and Algeria. And she had a new clue. [in French] These monuments, they are without a doubt [in French] because I know Aïn Salah very well... [in French] These monuments are related to... [in French] Water. [in French] It's a desert environment, it's the Sahara. [in French] It is practically the hottest place in the Maghreb. [in French] It’s an area which is very well known for the difficulties of this heat there, and for the water harvest. [in French] So the people, they dig. [in French] It has a name: the Foggaras. Foggara. It’s the North African name for a 2,500-year-old style of irrigation system that goes by many names, but is often called a qanat. Builders dig a well at an elevated point on a slope deep enough to tap into groundwater. They then dig parallel shafts at regular intervals. These provide air flow for diggers as they create an underground channel all the way back to the main well. With a slope of 1 or 2 degrees, the channel carries water long distances powered by gravity alone. In a part of the world with barely any rain and no running rivers this technology can provide water for crops, livestock, and people year round... making human-made oases possible. [in French] It's curious, eh? This was the most promising lead yet. It explained the desert location, the circular shape, the regularity, and spacing. Even the closest municipality’s name, Foggaret Ezzaouia, is named after foggaras. And those mapio pictures of wells started to make sense. But I wanted to run it by more people who had studied qanats. Qanats are actually more than just water infrastructures. I think they are the very raison d'etre: the basis of habitation in such harsh climates. They start from outside of the city, but then they usually end up into the city or into agricultural lands. But when it came to our circles... I have no take on it, honestly. I'm looking at it now. Right. Okay, that's interesting. There's something like 20 of them in a row. Yeah. So that's definitely a foggara. So at the end of that, there should be a town. There should be an oasis or something. But if there isn't, that means that probably the water in the qanat or foggara has dried up since a long time. You should talk to Dale Lightfoot. He is the American geographer who knows everything about qanats. These are what we're looking at. I couldn't even say with confidence whether these are related to water collection. But I can tell you they're definitely not qanats. We also found these pictures. Do you think these could be what the circles are? What you're showing me pictures of here looks a lot like animal-drawn wells. I've seen these in a lot of places. To me, this is not the same thing. I think you're back to square one. Back to square one, indeed. Don't rule out space aliens. I've heard they do crazy things, too. So they might be wells, but probably not a qanat. And maybe not even related to water at all. Could we at least rule that out? That’s when Melissa found a database of oases in the Sahara. With lists of the people who help manage their water supply. Like Mohammed Brik, a farmer in Laghouat, Algeria. I don't think it was done to fetch water. Because the point of going out to look for water is to meet the needs of the population and agriculture. If there’s nothing for 160 kilometers then that’s not a valid hypothesis. Right. Because there is no village, no... There’s no village. There’s no garden. There's no oasis. There's nothing planted. There's no population. We were three months in and it seemed like our most promising hypothesis yet was probably out. Then I got an email. Back in early October, Steve Wood promised to send me high-res images from Maxar’s archive. Finally, we had them. It was the clearest look we'd had yet. And Steve believed it showed a new detail: tire tracks. If that was right, it would mean someone had been there within the last century. I kept asking people. Historians... Algerian officials... Archaeologists... And nearby residents... But after a while, I felt stuck. Like we had exhausted what we could find out on the internet. And there was nowhere else to go from here... except to the circles themselves. The longer this project went on, the more I realized that we had a choice to make. We could keep interviewing more and more people, get more and more theories and ultimately have no way to back them up. Or... we could figure out a way to get someone there... Try to film it... and then, maybe, we could know for sure. So I asked my teammate Christina — who works with journalists all over the world if she knew anyone in Algeria. And that led us to Samir Abchiche, a video journalist in Algiers. I’m about to be a dad. So no more adventures for me after this. We hired Samir to be our on-the-ground journalist... to use his expertise in the area to help us solve this mystery. The next part took months. We knew this wasn’t going to be an ordinary video shoot. We were asking him and his team to travel incredibly far to go do something potentially dangerous. But Samir took this story into his own hands. He was obsessing over every hypothesis, establishing local contacts figuring out all the details of how to get a team of people from Algiers 15 hours away by car to Aïn Salah and then deep into the desert where no roads go. Finally, Samir figured out how to make it happen. And at 7 pm on a cool February night, he and his second cameraman Abdelate... set off. And it begins. Shit. It does not begin. We can't find a hotel. They're all closed. And we're going to try Hotel El Djanoub. We have the Royal Suite. I just woke up. It's starting to get super hot. There's no service. It's yellow everywhere. But it’s beautiful. Yeah, but it’s beautiful. Which way to Ain Salah? 300 km to Ain Salah. 150 km. All we've seen is the horizon. They'd already spent 24 hours driving to get here. Now, they had to go another 160 km from Aïn Salah into the desert. But they had to pick someone else up first. Farid Ighilahriz, an archaeologist who used to lead Algeria’s national archaeological research center and managed one of Algeria’s largest national parks. He’s here to help the team identify whatever they come across. How are we going to do this without cell service? No no, I made a map. From there, they prepared. They got groceries... Bought fuel... Interviewed local officials... Planned the GPS route... And they assembled a team. A driver, an archeologist an assistant, and a desert guide. It’s right about here that I lost communication with Samir. And I wouldn’t be able to hear from him until he was back in town... With, hopefully, a definitive answer. No sandstorms, so that's good. That was making us nervous yesterday. It's still a bit risky, because nobody passes through this way. Almost nobody. And we're just two SUVs. This one is reliable, the other one, we don't really know. What’s weird is that as the crew got closer and closer... They started finding signs pointing to every one of our theories. First, tire marks from seismic survey trucks… Then, a well system... Water is always just three meters below. And finally, ancient tombs. We just saw something from far away. Yep, it's a tomb. There’s another one. So this is a tumulus. It's one of the oldest kinds of funeral monuments. And on the morning of day two, they checked the map, and… We're going roughly in the right direction. So we're 11 km from the first ones. I think we found them... False alarm... Did you see? We are approximately 500 meters from that place. Let's go! We got really excited, but they weren't there. Apparently they're just 500 meters away. We're not far. Right there, you can't see anything. You can't see anything. Right there, yeah? 10 ... 11 ... 12 .... There we go, we have all 12. After 160 kilometers of driving off-road in the desert... they were there. The 22 circles, all in configuration. They were surprisingly faint. You might not notice them if you happened to be passing by. As Samir and the team explored the area, they found the next set. And the next ones. This one's a bit clearer. The hole comes out of the ground. And a lot of them had something in common... metal wires. They’re connected. And there ... Come see up close... ...they run underground. Can I dig a little? No, no no. Not here? No. Sorry. So maybe they dug just a little bit... It's dynamite. Okay. Under these little mounds was dynamite. But here we have something else, too. We call these "attachments." It's what you'd put around a wooden crate. That's how they must have brought in the dynamite. That inscription reads SOTEMU — that’s a French acronym for the “Tunisian company of explosives and ammunition.” But one of the wires looked different than the others. It still had a yellow plastic coating. This is where it got a little scary. Is it possible... Was this one not detonated yet? Well get out of there, don't stand there. Be careful. We gotta tell everyone to be careful. Eventually they decided that the dynamite — if there was any left was probably harmless, because it would have needed a detonator to go off. So they started to dig. It must go down at least a meter. But it was buried quite deep. So, at some point, to be safe, they stopped. And then they found a clue no one could have expected. Farid? Ah, yes. Bricato... Français... "Made in France." Old cans of sardines and tuna. Here we found a little tin can. That was used for food... ...by those who worked here... ...who carried out this exploration. Oh, there’s color. Whoa... This could be the solution. So we knew what it was: dynamite, buried underground. And when Samir and the crew finally got home... I called him to hear all the details. My English, is it work for this? Yeah, it's perfect! We think that we have--we know the solution. So it's a method of searching for petroleum. But it was an old technique. At the very beginning of this journey, that’s one of the first things that anyone ever suggested. Is that it had to do with searching for petroleum. Which is crazy that it’s finally confirmed. It's the same thing that they do today just with dynamite instead of more finely tuned technology. This is crazy, this is so much more wild than I expected. Ironically, it put us right back right where we started. Seismic surveying. The circles are the remnants of surveyors looking for resources underground. This whole time, that first guess was right. But only sort of. Because Bob Hardage at the University of Texas was right when he said in that email that this doesn’t remotely resemble seismic surveying… Because this isn’t how seismic surveying works today. It’s an older technique, from the early days of surveying that uses dynamite explosions instead of vibration machines. The explosions would provide the seismic waves that would reflect and refract off of the ground underneath and that would tell surveyors that something — potentially something valuable, like oil was underground and worth digging for. The circles looked like this because of the force of those dynamite explosions happening underground. From this moment, a new question came. Who did this and when? Knowing it was a seismic survey wasn't enough. But we had one other clue from the desert to turn to... the sardine cans. I reached out to Saupiquet which seems to be the only one of these companies that still exists but they said they couldn’t identify their age by photos. So I found someone who’s been collecting sardine cans for over 40 years: Philippe Anginot. He even made a museum out of it. And I showed him the pictures. What we have here is what's called a three-body can. So these are typical cans from the 1960s. After 1960 the “Arsène Saupiquet Cannery” became the “Saupiquet Company.” When it's still labeled "Arsène," it's from before 1960. So because this can was labeled Arsène Saupiquet, we know that it was manufactured before they changed their name in 1960. Because of its 60s-style “three-body” design, we know it’s probably from the very late 1950s. Granted, this is canned food, so it’s possible that it was purchased years before it was actually eaten. But I think we can safely guess that these cans were left behind by an oil exploration crew sometime in the late 1950s. All that was left was to figure out who those people were. Before going into the desert, Samir recorded interviews with the experts that they met along the way. And there was one interview with someone who actually would have been there in the late 1950s. The father of the desert guides, who used to work as a guide himself. Peace be upon you. Here are the photos, Belhadj. I see the small holes placed like the hands of a watch. When did the drilling of [that area] take place? In 1953, the vehicles came to Djebel Beida to go to the probe. So this place existed and a company was working there. Yes, it is true. What were they doing. I know that they were digging, that's all. What was their name? I no longer remember. But I believe CREPS. I know that, at that time, CREPS was working. CREPS — a French acronym for the Sahara Petroleum Research and Exploitation Company was a joint venture between the French government and Shell. CREPS had a permit to explore and extract oil in this entire expanse of the Sahara from 1953 to 1958. Lining up that map with Google Maps shows that the circles are inside that CREPS sector. And according to these French Senate records they started geological surveys right away. Within that time, CREPS became the first company to strike oil in the Sahara, in 1956. This spurred a rush of oil companies into the region. And the struggle over control of Saharan oil became a centerpiece of France’s brutal war against Algerian Independence. "It was the end of nearly 8 years of bloodshed." "And the African nation won its freedom after 132 years." Even when Algeria won its independence in 1962 France maintained rights to Saharan oil for years to come. These circles are the scars of colonialism. They're evidence of one country’s attempts to take the resources of another. And they’re only as isolated as they are because oil wasn’t found there. Everywhere that it was, was transformed forever. So, we figured it out. These circles in the Sahara were made by French CREPS employees looking for oil. They were made by underground dynamite explosions arranged in circles along a straight line through the desert. And based on the dates of the CREPS permit, and the types of cans they left behind we can safely say they were there around 1957 or 1958. When we figured it all out, I emailed Bob. And he said this: "You have certainly done a persistent and thorough investigation." "I am comfortable with the conclusion that your features are remnants of decades-old, first generation analog recording of seismic data." "An unbelievable preservation." "Comparing 1950s seismic equipment and today's seismic equipment is similar to comparing propeller airplanes and deep space rockets." "Essentially, there is no comparison but two different worlds." "Well done." Thanks, Bob. We only know this thanks to the help of dozens of people someone’s sixty-five-year-old trash, a lot of time on the internet and a long, brave journey into the desert. Of course, a story like this could always keep going, more and more specific. But at some point to finish a story, we have to ask ourselves if the answer we have is satisfactory. And I think this one is.
By Timothy Mwitiabout 18 hours ago in History
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.