MAN FROM DEVIL'S ISLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14375, 21 May 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

MAN FROM DEVIL'S ISLAND.

TELLS HOW HE ESCAPED ON jf|j IMPROVISED RAFT. '#|f The man who is said to have thrice gowfffi away from the penal settlement of Devil's Island, in French? Guiana, 1 again i appearedJ§| at Bow-street Police Court; He is charge<||l on a provisional ■;.. warrant, with havingf|| been convicted within the juriediction-'oflli the French Government of attempted "" der. He was recently arrested on -board ;>|| the Mauretania at Liverpool. •'- > ij The authorities have stated that the - real name of the prisoner is Fortutt*J||j Roger Roques, although now charged 'TaSlfll Adrian de Median, and he is said to hav«f || escaped'-,from the island, while undergo^;?* ing ; & sentence of penal servitude: forflife^g ; Detective-Sergeant Nicholls (the officerJ|§ in the case); said that no papers had: arrived from France, and the magistrates again remanded the accused. Through an interpreter, the accused!^! asked the magistrate to [ allow him to haven't some more of his money, as he was|6Mf^H fering "from hunger, being unable tof<^il||j the food served up; to him •■; by the police*-, authorities. , : ,'X- ' | Sir Albert de Rutzen allowed the at* j cused to have 10s. '" _ ; -.'. Roques, or Adrian de -Median, talking I to -police officers of his last escape from I ; the dread Devil's Island, said that the'l; other ; convict who got ; away with him • I died of hunger. A number of the con- . | victs had been working at a short dis- ; /;i'; tance from the prison." At nightfall, whea^^] they should have* been gathered' on Sth#||p chain; and marched back, the pair made'?; a dash for liberty: V; ~ -- pf Hi ran miles in the darkness, ;'hfid :^g managed to secrete themselves in a kind - of cave by the seashore. The patrol io^Mf: • the island was so thorough that the men, : desperate^as they were with thirst ap».(^p hunger, fare not venture forth from their ; rocky fastness. They were here- many. days, and the second convict died after a terrible period of delirium. Roques, no^Si reckless with privation, crawled ' forth and chanced on a baulk of derelict timber. With infinite labour he hauled this^ta^l the seashore, and lashing himself to it,. :-■ committed himself to the mercy,of.-.thp'j^^ waters. He was providentially carried by the tides to the mainland, and befrienoedg'il as a shipwrecked mariner. - ' ■*,-: • . ■'■ ■;,'■■:-'•