The letters of the whole party must be
supervised by the acting Governor. This is the gist of the official
instructions. Napoleon's dislike of being accompanied by a British
officer led him nearly always to restrict himself to the limits and
generally to the grounds of Longwood.

And where, we may ask, could a less unpleasant place of detention have
been found? In Europe he must inevitably have submitted to far closer
confinement. For what safeguards could there have been proof against a
subtle intellect and a personality whose charm fired thousands of
braves in both hemispheres with the longing to start him once more on
his adventures? The Tower of London, the eyrie of Dumbarton Castle,
even Fort William itself, were named as possible places of detention.
Were they suited to this child of the Mediterranean? He needed sun; he
needed exercise; he needed society. All these he could have on the
plateau of Longwood, in a singularly equable climate, where the heat
of the tropics is assuaged by the south-east trade wind, and plants of
the sub-tropical and temperate zones alike flourish.[557]

But nothing pleased the exiles. They moped during the rains; they
shuddered at the yawning ravines; they groaned at the sight of the
red-coats; above all, they realized that escape was hopeless in face
of Cockburn's watchful care. His first steps on arriving at the island
were to send on to the Cape seventy-five foreigners whose presence was
undesirable. He also despatched the "Peruvian" to hoist the British
flag on the uninhabited island, Ascension, in order, as he wrote to
the Admiralty, "to prevent America or any other nation from planting
themselves [_sic_] there ... for the purpose of favouring sooner or
later the escape of General Bonaparte." Four ships of war were also
kept at St. Helena, and no merchantmen but those of the East India
Company were to touch there except under stress of weather or when in
need of water.

These precautions early provoked protests from the exiles. Bertrand
had no wish to draw them up in the trenchant style that the ex-Emperor
desired; but Gourgaud's "Journal" shows that he was driven on to the
task (November 5th). It only led to a lofty rejoinder from Cockburn,
in which he declined to relax his system, but expressed the wish to
render their situation "as little disagreeable as possible." On
December 21st, Montholon returned to the charge with a letter dictated
by Napoleon, complaining that Longwoo