The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-01-21
WORSE THAN SIBERIA
HORRORS OF THE PENAL COLONY To
WHICH DREYFUS Is BANISHED.
The Climate Is killing Hot, the Labor
Excessively Hard and the AtmOs-
phere Breeds Disease.

pass the horrors of Punishment to the Hes
de Salut, where France has begun to send
her Anarchists and hardened felons. 1t is
here that Captain Dreyfus, the Frenchman
who was recently convicted of treason in
having revealed to German officers the
plans of French Notifications and other
secrets will be taken to spend the remain
der of his life
The fierce tropical sun and ever-humid
atmosphere would of themselves speedily
suffice to kill any but the hardest, but
when to tl>,se is added cruel and unremit-
ting toll 1t is wonder that the miserable
exileS seek swifter death at the hands of
their merciless guards, whose orders are
to shoot and kill at the first sign of insu-
bordination. France has thus inflicted
the traitor the most dreadful punishment
in her power.
These Islands of Safey" are three in
number, and lie a few degrees north of
the equatN, off the coast of French Guiana,
South America They small in area,
and except for their maritime sell
wage, are covered with dense tropical for
ests.
The climate is murderous. To stand bare
headed in the blazing sun for a moments
space is certain death The wet season
/ lasts eight months, from November to
June and the average rainfall during this
drops below IS degrees Fahrenheit. and
climbs to lis degrees during the four dry
| months.
The atmosphere is always charged
with moisture and poisonous exhalations
| that it seems like an ill-smelling Turkish
bath. 1t has been estimated that, should
az Inc n9Viai ouJets 10 rTeneh Gu1ah ma
| sufficient to submerge the country to the
| depth of fifteen sixteen feet.
In 1852 France began deporting to Guiana
criminals from her possessions in Asia and
| Africa, and until recently the convict colony
consisted almost entirely of Arabs and Ana
mites, the white malefactors being sent to
New Caledonia aso where the climate is less
ened French criminals have been sent to
Guiana, and less than a year ago a law
| the lies de Salut of Anarchists and the like,
instead of mercfully guillotining them.
| PRISONERS Gagged EN- ROUTE.
| The convict transports generally sail
| either from the lie de Re. in the Bay of
| Biscay, or from the lie d. AK in the Medi-
| terranean, near Toulon. The voyage lasts
| a month, and its horrors are fit prepara-
| ton for those to come. The prisoners, al
| ready dressed in their convict garb, are con-
| fined pel nell in companies of fifty in great
| iron cages the span deck. These cages
| are lined on their four sides with benches,
| and at night hammocks are slung Day and
| night the guards stand beside with loaded
| mitralleuSeS, ready to fire at the first sign
| of rebellion.
| Those prisoners whom life of misery or
pass bass the time at first shouting. singing OBJ
| scene songs, testing at the sad newcomers
ana hooking at the frlghtfui ana un eo t
| echoes which reach the outer world are
| faint, and those who return from the con-
| Wet colony of Guiana are few. The noviceS
in crime. the "bleus," in whom still fingers
some sense of shame and humiliation. and
| of France, sit silently lnuddled together on
! the benches, dreaming of the expiation of
| their misdeeds which has now begun.
But when the ship begins to roll upon
| the open sea the prisoners. pale and faint
ing from illness, cease thelr NOISY Jests
! pulsive for description.
| Day by day, as the ship nears the tropics,
| the heat increases and AT last becomes in
| tolerable The foul air is sweetened only
at intervals when the narrow portfolios
are opened. Those prisoners who have been
| orderly are permitted to walk two hours
| each day upon the deck.
Sometimes there are outbreaks on these
convict ships. Eight weeks ago the trans
port Vile de Saint Nazai Ire took from the
crimes. Among the number were four
| well-known Anarchists named Lautier.
| MarpeauX, Catneau and Colombat. AS
| they neared Guiana an exile named Gaou-
yer broke the rules. and when the guard,
| ordered by the commandant, came to put
him in arms, Gaouyer sprang upon him
and attempted to strange him,
ing nj his u revolver and firing. and Gaouy e
| fell mortally wounded. Seeing this the
other prisoners, melted by the Anarchists
their cages, but the officers drenched them
with water and suffocated them with
such emergency, and they were soon
subdued-
| On the arrival of the prisoners at the
| lies de Salut they are taken to the Camp"
| a clearing in which are strongly built iron
barred huts In these are swung double
rows of hammocks and at night the fetid
| atmosphere within. combined with the
noisome vapors OF the outer air and the
owe ipGn 0tC
render any but the sleep of exhaustion i'm
| possible.
TREATMENT OF CoNvIcTs.
From the moment of his arrival the con-
| Wet has name. He is known only by
the number of his hammock. The work is
excessively hard. The new arrivals are put
at the most severe tasks-draining marshes
and clearing ground-"to break their
Spirits though it would seem they would
| have little inclination to rebel after the
sufferings of the voyage.
They are conducted to their work by
armed guards who ordered to fire at the
least attempt at flight. Almost none try
to escape, for they know, if they evade the
bullets of the guards and their pursuit.
which seems impossible. it VIII be neces-
sary to traverse the sea and the virgin
forest. At every step will lie in wait for
ease or by the poisoned arrows Of the ma
tives. who receive a reward for every con-
Wet they bring , back Sod dead S or alive
awful toll in climate where walk of
hundred yards is formidable task, they
labor in the blazing sun with spades and
picks. About their heads hang clouds of
| singing insects, whose bites swell their
faces and hands. Great red ants cover their
bare legs, and sometimes poisonous serpants
twist about their ankles and infict mortal
wounds. They stand in trenches up to their
knees in water and mire. and the putrid
| exhalations rising from the earth consume
! them with fever or set their teeth chatter
ing as with cold, while the sweat rolls from
their foreheads.
Fearful as this life is to men Injured TO
toll and hardship what must it be for men
of education, accustomed TO the comforts
+ and luxuries of life? Some lose hope, go
mad and die from deliberately exposing
themselves to the fierce rays of the tropic
sum- while others. seeking swifter death.
revolt and are shot down by the guards.
Occasionally finds in the Paris papers
a paragraph like the following, from a re-
cent number of the Petit Journal:
1.-The Governor of Guiana has just adj
dressed report to the government. stating
that the convicts on the lies de Salut. in
cited by the anarchists confined there. re-
volted or the nights of the 21st and 22d of
| October, struck down and killed two
guards-Mosea and Cretallaz-killed an
overseer and seriously wounded two others
1t was necessary to call out all the troops