Royal Commonwealth Society : A view of the island of St Helena

Royal Commonwealth Society

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This is a coloured etching and aquatint after George Hutchins Bellasis (1778-1822) portraying the port of Jamestown on the volcanic island of Saint Helena. Saint Helena is located in the South Atlantic Ocean about 1,200 miles to the west of southwestern Africa. At this time, the island belonged to the East India Company, which had first acquired it in 1659. The island provided a safe anchorage and a source of water and provisions for the company’s sailing ships returning from India, China and other destinations in the Far East. In 1775, the explorer James Cook visited Saint Helena during his second circumnavigation of the world. In 1834, it was transferred to Britain and became a Crown Colony.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>See Janus record <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FRCMS%20190%2F1'>here</a></p>