Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-09-06
A Band Of Outlaws Loose.
Their Capture and Execution.

Their Capture and Execution.
The following startling account of a
partially successful attempt of a large
gang of convicts at the penal colony of
Cayenne to recover their liberty, and
to leave that abode of Indebtedness and
pestilence, will attract here attention, as
some of the convicts are, in all proba-
! bility, at present in this city.
On the 14th of April last, nineteen
convicts, of the coast gang, suddenly
refused to continue their work, which
consisted in dredging the approach to
the so-called mole bridge. They were
in charge of four keepers, who, upon
the first symptom of insubordination on
the part of the .forcatS, pointed their
revolvers at them, and threatened them
with the direst punishment if they per-
sisted in their disobedience but the
mutineers made light of these threats,
and began to hurl rocks, which they
had picked up, upon their keepers,
whom they disabled in this manner, and
| deprived of their revolvers and swords.
They then beat out the brains of these
bruised and wounded men, and leisure
ly set about preparing for their escape
from bondage.
The nineteen outlaws were under the
command of an old galley-slave, named
Etienne Dougireur, man already sixty
| five years of age, but still hale and
hearty, and endowed with herculean
strength. Dougireur had twice been
convicted of murder, and had passed
over forty years of his life in the bagnes
of France and at Cayenne. His back
bore the ominous letters "T. F., with
which he had been branded many years
ago at the bagne of Toulon. This
Dougireur was implicitly obeyed by the
other mutineers, who, at his direction,
first buried their murdered keepers and
then fitted up the long shore boat fol
the contemplated and evidently care
fully planned escape. The boat could
have held at least fifty persons, and
two days provisions were found on
board. Two kegs from the keepers cot.
tage were filled with water, and then
the convicts went ON board, and held
out to sea. This was at nine o'clock in
the morning.
The escape of the forcats was not dis
covered at the headquarters of the
penal colony until about dusk, when
they failed to return to their quarters.
A search for them was institueda at once;
but, darkness soon after setting in, it
necessarily remained fruitless.
Meanwhile, the fugitives, having OBJ
tanned start, approached the coast
again, and landed toward evening at q
point about thirty miles north of Cay
enne, where they hid in the forest for
three or four days, shooting game with
their revolvers, and finding everywhere
plenty of water and eatable roots. Then
they set out again in their boat, always
closely hugging the shore, which is
here densely wooded, and whose i'm
penetrspble thickets are full of innumer-
able, excellent hiding places. The
fatigues of this trip, however, began to
tell heavily on the feebler ones among
the escaped gang, and on the fourth day
two of them became delirious and died
in great agony. Finally, on the 23d OF
April, after undergoing unheard-ol
hardships, the seventeen fugitives, look,
ing in their rags and with their sun.
burnt faces, like savages rather than
civilized human beings, arrived at De.
merara, where they said they were
shipwrecked sailors from Belgian yes.
sci, bound for Rio de Janeiro, and they
told narrowing tale of the terrible suf.
ferings they had undergone after the
loss of their ship. The people kindly
cared for them, and several ships bound
for England and the United States were
glad to take them on board as sailors OF
cooks. Six of the fugitives, however,
were too weak to leave Demerara, and
when, on the 29th of April, cutter ar.
rived from Cayenne, in order to see il
any of the escaped gang were there
they were arrested, and taken in irons
back to the penal colony. Upon then
arrival there, the six wretches received
each the customary one hundred lashes
with which every attempt at running
away from there is punished; and, after
recovering from this terrible punish.
ment, were summarily tried for the
murder of their keepers. Half an hou1
afterward they had been found guilty
and were sentenced to be shot on the
spot. Some of them begged for mercy
in the most abject manner, and con
fessed all they had done since the day
of their escape. But the keepers drew
them out on the beach, and there con
tinued firing at them until they were al
dead. Their corpses were then thrown
into the sea, to be devoured by the
sharks.
Dougireur was among the eleven who
got away from Demerara. The Other
ten, who were also Successful, like him
were murderers and highway robbers.