The times., 1899-06-12
DARING ESCAPE OF coNv1oTs.
French Political Prisoners Go to Sea
in SmpIi Dusout,

| Port of Spain, Trinidad. w l.. June IL
1t is known that a party of political con-
! victs escaped from the penal settlement of
st. Jean, on the Maroni River. French
! Guiana. Knowing that they would be ar
rested and sent back if they simply crossed
the river into Dutch Guiana, they made
I dash. seized q large dugout, and managed
( to make their way to the mouth of the
| stream. The open sea and the territory of
| Venezuela far to the west at the mouth
of the 0rinoco was their objective point.
| a storm swept the meagre supply OF pro-
| visions they had captured with the boat
! overheard and they were left desolate.
For three days and three nights, 5uffeted
| by wind and waves, scorched during the
; day by the rays of a tropical sun and suf-
| fering the pangs of hunger and thirst,
| the occupants of the boat. working by re-
! lays. kept the head OF their craft north
ward and westward, and were rewarded at
| the end of that time in sighting the coast
! of British Guiana. They ran into the Ber-
bice River where their wretched appear
ance and woeful condition appealed more
/ loudly than words could to the sympathy
I Of the British eolonists. Some of the es-
Gaping men had suffered terribly from the
! exposure they were all more or less
scorched or blistered, but one man in par
! ticular had so suffered from the fierce rays
I of the tropical sun that his ears had TO be
/ amputated Their bodily wants were
! speedily supplied, but as British Guiana
had never offered a safe retreat Tor
French refugees, their stoppage in the Ber-
! bice River was not unnecessarily pro-
| longed.
| With fresh supply Of provisions and
"godspeed" from the natives, the escaping
convicts again set cut for sea, and
the following day suffering from exhaus-
| ticn, they piloted their frail craft into the
Demerara River and arrived at George
town, the capital OF British Guiana.
! For many years past it has been the
I custom of the French authorities at cay
enne to communicate with the British Gui-
anan constabulary regarding and freely de-
scribing such conyicts as might escape
frcm any of the penal settlements of
! French Guiana, and if they were discover
/ ed in British Guiana they were arrested
and again deported to French Guiana on
! the requisition of the governor of Cayenne.
! For some unexplained reason this practice
Of the French authorities reporting such
escapes and the publication by them OF
! descriptive sheets" have been abandoned
for some time back In point of fact.
since the Court of Cessation took up the
! Dreyfus case the former practice fell into
disuse. The reason is not plain, for it
| is known that Dreyfus is imprisoned on an
island by himself, with special guard. and
there is no chance of his succeeding in es-
Gaping.
Accordingly. when these escaping con-
victs arrived at Georgetown the authori
ties OF British Guiana declined to take any
steps to arrest them, they had not re-
ceived any complaint report or descriptive
sheet with regard to them from the au-
thorities of French Guiana. The refugees
were thus allowed to remain unmole=ted
to recruit their health.
The men talked freely with the people
of Georgetown. One stated that ha was a
BouIangist and had been exiled seven years
lago by President Carnot for political Of
fence; he had been a professor of rhetoric
in normal school in Paris and was thirty
seven years old. Another said he was an
optician, thirty-four years OF age, and an
other an artist, aged twenty-five.
After resting for two days and being
anxious to place as great a distsnce as
possible between themselves and the au-
thorites Of French Guiana, the refug es
set out with fresh supply Of provisions
in a northwesterly direction, their nten-
ticn being to land on the Venezuelan side
OF the Orinoeo River, where they can take
up their abode without the fear OF French
| ipterferencp