FROM DEVIL'S ISLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21538, 9 January 1932, Page 18

FROM DEVIL'S ISLAND

FATE OF TWELVE FUGITIVES SIX CONVICTS DROWNED. Graphic and dramatic stories of the terrible experiences undergone by 12 convicts who escaped from Devil’s Isle, the French penal settlement off the coast of Guiana, lately reached Montpellier, France. . Six of the convicts reached the island of Sainte Marie de Venezuela, only to be rearrested, ut the six others were drowned when their frail craft capsized in the shark-infested sens. Among the ill-fated party were Marcel Lagarde and Louis Degats, both of whom were serving sentences of 20 years. Degats has described the escape in a letter to the barrister who defended him at his trial. “ With 10 companions. Marcel Lagarde, who was condemned with me for the same robbery, and I succeeded in breaking out by night from the- prison settlement,” wrote Degats. “We struggled on foot through the forest for 15 days, living' as best we could on berries and fruit, and in deadly terror of pursuit. “ Dangers of all kinds beset us, and we had more than one narrow escape from snakes and leopards, which abound in these forests. At last we managed to procure a couple of native canoes in which we set sail, six in each boat, for Columbia, where we felt fairly sure of finding comparative safety. • “After a day and night at sea, almost without provisions and suffering greatly from thirst, we ran into a violent storm. One of the boats, in which Lagarde had taken his place, was upset and all its occupants drowned. “ When at length we reached the island of Sainte Marie it was only to fall like sheep into the hands of the Venezuelan police, who had been warned of our probable arrival. We had not been able to obtain any other clothes, and the uniform of the convict settlement at once betrayed us, as did our haggard and exhausted appearance.” Maitre Chardossau, Degats' defender at his trial, on receipt of this letter at once sent a telegram to the President of the Venezuelan Republic asking pardon and release for his client, adding in a message by aeroplane a long account of the case which led to his imprisonment. It is stated that in view of the exceptional hardships undergone by the convicts, their liberty may be granted them on condition that they do not return to France.