The Portland daily press., 1895-01-19
ISLES DE SALUT.
Horrible Place to Which France BAN
ishes Her Criminals.

There Captain Dreyfus is to be Sept.-Few
Men have Ever Escaped.-A Deadly
Climate.
Graphically portrayed as the sufferings
OF Siberian exiles have been. they can
not suTpass the horrors of Punishment to
the lies de Salut, where France has be-
gun to send her Anarchists and hardened
felons. 1t is here that Capt. Dreyfus,
the Frenchman who was recently con-
victed of treason in having revealed to
German officers the plans of French for
tifcations, and other secrets. will be
taken to spend the remainder 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 these is added cruel and unre-
uniting toll, it is no wonder that the
miserable exiles seek swifter death at
the hand of their merciless guards, whose
orders are to shoot and kill at the first
sign of insu bordination. relates writer
in the Petit Parisieu. France has thus
inflicted on the traitor the most dread
full punishment in her power. These
"Islapds of Safety" are three in mum Der,
and lie few degrees north of the equa-
for off the coast of French Guiana.
South America. They are small in area,
and, except for their narrow maritime
seIyase. are covered with dense tropical
forests.
The climate is murderous. TO stand
bareheaded in the blazing sun for mo-
ment's space is certain death. Inc wet
season lasts eight months, from Novem-
her to June, and the average rainfall
during this time is 10 inches-four times
as much as in New York city. The mer-
curry never drops below IS degrees Fab
renheit, and climbs to 115 degrees dur
ing the four dry months. The atmosphere
| is always SO charged with moisture and
poisonous exhalations that it seems like
an ill-smelling Turkish bath. 1t has
been estimated that, should all the hu-
vial outlets to French Guiana be blocked
a single wet season would be sufficient
| TO submerge the country to the depth OF
I < or 16 feet. In 1852 France began de-
| nortinp to Guiana criminals from her
| nossessions in Asia and Africa, and IN
til recently the convict colony consisted
| almost entirely of Arabs and Anamltes,
the white malefactors being sent TO
| New Caledonia, where the climate Is
| less severe. Since 1892, how ever, the
most hardened French criminals have
been sent to Guiana, and less than q
wear ago law was passed authorizing
the Punishment to the lies de Salut OF
| Anarchists and the like, instead OF mer-
| cifully guillotining them.
PRISONERS CAGE DEN RUTE.
The convict transports generally sail
either from the lie de Rel, in the Bay OF
| Riscav. or from the lie d'Aix. in the
| Mediterranean, near Toulon. The voy-
age lasts a month, and it's horrors are
| fit preparation for those to come. The
prisoners. already dressed in theil
convict garb, are confined pell nell III
companies of fifty in great iron cages on
the spardeck. These cages are lined on
their four sides with benches, and al
night hammocks are slung. Day and
night the guards stand beside loaded
m itrailleuses, ready to fire at the first
sign Of rebellion.
Those prisoners whom life OF misery
or long sojourning in prisons has har'
dened pass the time at first shouting,
singing obscene songs, jestina at the sac
newcomers and mocking at the frightful
and unknown fate towards which they
are going, for the echoes which reach
the outer world are faint, and those who
return from the convict colony of Guiana
are few. The novices in crime, the
"bleus, " in whom still fingers some sense
OF shame and humiliation, and who are