DREYFUS'S EXILE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9383, 9 March 1898, Page 3

DREYFUS'S EXILE.

Precaution Against Rescue.

A coriespondeut of the New York Heiald wntes from Cayenne, Fiench Guiana, under date November 2drd : So much excitement has been laised in this colony of Caienncand oulsidc by Ihe recent agitation in regal d to the incarceration of Captain Dieyfus thut is now almost ticisoimble to mention his name in this locality. The little misting steamers and colonial cUppois which occasionally called at Safety Islands in order lo discharge provisions have now been warned off, and no vessel whatsoever is allowed to approach these islands nearer than a distance of fifteen cables. Tho He do Diablo, headquarters of the penitentiary administration of Safety Islands, was formeily a leper settlement. When Dreyfus was condemned to life imprisonment in n staong place, Devil's Island was the only spot which it wns thought would hold him with any degree of security. The lepers wwe therefore lemoved, and a residence constructed for him. This residence is somewhat in the naluie of a cage, the innermost depths of which can be viewed through a glass from the headquarters on He Royale, whero the Governor has his residence. Almost all the vegetation has been cleared off the island, so every point of it may be commanded. A battery of Hotclikiss guns is permanently dressed ready foi action against any attempt to rescue the prisoner. On the first alarm of such an attempt the orders are that Dreyfus is to be &hot. A year ago a report gained ground of Dreyfus' escape. Thousands of ponnds were spent in teleI grams to ascertain if the report was true or incorrect, and the then Governor wns recalled. Since then every day at stated hours the prisoner is obliged to appear outside his cage, and his existence is an nounced by telegraph to Paris. None of the guauls, who aie frequently changed, aro permitted to hold any conversation with him. Drej f us is allowed to pay a convict to net as his coolc. lie gets many newspapers and books, but all bis correspondence passes through the hands of the administiation. Dreyfus has fattened since ho has been a prisoner. He reads and wiites much, sitting outside his cage, where he can be seen on all sides. His guards watch him night and day, never letting hiiii ont of their sight. FiomDevil's Island escape is exceedingly difficult, as tho wateis are 'infested with sharks. One of these sharks, the biggest aud boldest, is well known as the " harbor master." Deceased convicts are taken out in a boat fitted with a plank on a lever. When the lever is released the plank turns and the body on it pitches into the water. Tho tolling of the death knell is the signal for the shaiks to appear, and the body hardly reachee the water before they begin to struggle for it. The boat has to be rapidly pulled away in Older to avoid accident by the commotion caused by the sharks in their struggles to get at the corpse.