St Helena is an island of volcanic formation in the south Atlantic belonging to Britain. It is located about about 850 miles south-east of the Island of Ascension, 1150 miles west from the west coast of South Africa, and 2000 miles from the east coast of Brazil. It has a total area of 410 km2. The climate is tropical; marine and mild, tempered by trade winds. The terrain is rugged and volcanic; with small scattered plateaus and plains. Natural resources are fish. The religion is comprised of an Anglican majority with also Baptist, Seventh-Day Adventist, and Roman Catholics. The language is English. Its position, in the ocean thoroughfare from Europe to the East, has long made it a place of call for vessels, while it has acquired special celebrity as the place of Napoleon's banishment, and where he resided from 1816 until his death in 1821. It has precipitous and almost inaccessible coasts, particularly on the north, where almost perpendicular cliffs rise to as high as 360 meters
St helena was discovered by Juan de Nova Castilla on St Helena's day, and named in honour of the saint, and was finally ceeded to Briatin in 1651.
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