Death Is Nothing (on this day 15 October 1815) Napoleon In Exile. After his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, his second abdication and his final surrender, the British government selected Saint Helena as the place of exile for Napoleon Bonaparte. Refusing his request for political asylum in England, the British sent Napoleon to a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean, 1,162 miles from the west coast of Africa. After a journey of nine weeks at sea, he arrived at the island of Saint Helena on 15th