The Memorial of Saint Helena

Las Cases began his journal on June 20, 1815, two days after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, and continued it until his expulsion from St. Helena on orders of the island's governor, Hudson Lowe, at the end of the following year.

According to Las Cases, the project of the Memorial commenced in early August, 1815 aboard the Bellerophon, where Napoleon was waiting for the ship that would transport him and a small party of companions to St. Helena.

Napoleon suggests he finds comfort in the thought of suicide, but Las Cases insists there will still be purpose for them in the "desolate place" of exile: "Sire, ... we will live on the past: there is enough in it to satisfy us.

"[1]At some point Las Cases began a daily routine of transcribing notes of the Emperor's conversation, leaving his son Emmanuel the task of producing a fair copy.

It was republished in France in 2017 by the Éditions Perrin with a text prepared, presented and commented on by Thierry Lentz, Peter Hicks, François Houdecek and Chantal Prévost from the Fondation Napoléon.