Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser

TOMB OF NAPOLEON.

Extract of a letter from St. Helena.

"Soon after he went to Longwood to reside, he complained of the badness of the water. At that time Madame Bertrand lived at Hutt's Gate about one mile from Longwood, at the top of a very pretty fertile valley, known here by the name of Semper Vale. Bonaparte frequently visited Madame Bertrand, and observed how very superior the water he drank there was to that which he got at Longwood. On being informed that it was procured from a spring down the vale, he expressed a wish to walk and see the well. He went there with Madame Bertrand, and, after examining the water, he noticed a willow tree growing about ten yards from the well. Viewing it in silence he said, "Should I die on this Island, I should wish to be buried under that tree; and I will drink no water but from this spring." When he returned home, he furnished one of his servants, a Chinese, with two silver bottles, holding about a gallon each, and sent him immediately to the spring for water. The same Chinese has had no other employment than fetching water in these bottles twice a day for the last five years.

"The land where the corpse of this extraordinary man is deposited, belongs to Mr. Touter, a very respectable shopkeeper in James Town. It is now called "Napoleon's Vale," and is very much frequented by the inhabitants. The grave was lined with stone, and covered with a plain slab of the same material."