3-065-710 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Hospital, Ascension Island, 1874. Engraving from a sketch by Dr. Eames, of the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar. 'This small island, which lies about eight degrees south of the Equator, in the South Atlantic, nearly 1500 miles from the African coast, and as far from that of Brazil, may be used for the reception and cure of invalids from Sir Garnet Wolseley's force in the Ashantee campaign [ie Third Anglo-Ashanti War]. It is a British military station, founded in 1815, when Napoleon was confined at St. Helena, which island is about 700 miles to the south-east of Ascension. The island is but seven miles long and six wide; it is of volcanic formation, with conical hills of tufaceous gritty limestone, the highest rising to 2800 feet, and with much pumice-stone and lava. The scenery is bare and rugged, except on the Green Mountain, at the eastern end, where the land, at a certain height above the sea, is fertile and well cultivated. The climate is temperate and healthy. There is a deficiency of fresh water, but the small garrison and the hospitals exist in tolerable comfort'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.