Isolated in the vastness of the South Atlantic and fortress-like in appearance, the Island of St Helena was important for centuries only as a victualling station for ships of the British East India Company, on their long voyages to and from India via the Cape of Good Hope. It was on one of these journeys that Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, took note of the island's remote impregnability. It was Wellington who suggested St Helena as Napoleon Bonaparte's place of imprisonment and exile after his defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Until his death in 1821, the former Emperor spent his final years under constant British guard. His exile transformed a speck on the maritime map into the most famous island in the world.

Translated by: John Brownjohn