St Helena (island)

St Helena (island), part of the British dependency of St Helena (which also includes Ascension and the Tristan da Cunha group), in the South Atlantic Ocean, about 1,930 km (1,200 mi) west of Africa. St Helena is of volcanic origin, and its surface is rugged and mountainous, reaching an altitude of about 820 m (2,700 ft) in the High Hills in the south-west; its area is 122 sq km (47 sq mi). The climate is moderate and the mean annual temperature is somewhat over 21° C (over 70° F). Potatoes and flax are the chief products. The dependency is administered by a governor. The capital and chief port is Jamestown (population, 1987 estimate, 1,400). The population of the island (1988) is 5,564.

St Helena was discovered in 1502 by a Portuguese navigator, João de Nova; it was then uninhabited. In 1659 the East India Company founded the first permanent settlement. The island was the place of exile of Napoleon from 1815 until his death there in 1821, in the farmhouse of Longwood, near Jamestown.