13 lodge three hundred men, and we were but one hundred and fifty political prisoners in French Guiana. When I left Cayenne, two years before, the Governor said to my friends that I should return there in a few months ; but, every time they required him to fulfil his promise, he always found pretexts to decline it. H e was changed, and his succes sor did the same. A respectable merchant, though a Portuguese, begged of M . Durand, the Director of the Penitentiaries, to let him have me as his clerk ; but he refused obstinately. He confessed I was honest and intelligent, but he added : " A l l the political pris oners may come to Cayenne, except the one you ask for." For these reasons I thought it quite impossible to leave the islands, and was most astonished when M . Durand's son-in-law called for me and said : " Will you go to Cayenne ?" " Yes, sir, I am willing." " When will you g o ? " " The sooner the better." " Then write to any worthy person to become bondsmen for you, and you may g o . " " I will do it, sir." 1 did, and three days afterwards I was called to Royal Island and went to Cayenne. When I arrived there, Gov. Bonard told me this : " Leave us quiet, and we will leave you quiet." " I never brought you any quarrel, Governor." " Be still—be still." Louis Napoleon Buonaparte had an heir—monsters are some times fertile—and the Moniteur proclaimed an amnesty for the political prisoners on certain conditions. I accepted them, and presented my acceptance to M. de la Richerie, the Director of the Penitentiaries. " I t is not very flattering," said he, " but I will send it as it is." Governor Bonard left Cayenne, and we had M Baudin in stead of him. The latter was a coarse seaman, fond of liquors and with a passion for money; he was ruled by his wife, and she was ruled by her minions—so that French Guiana was in the hands of young, foolish men, who used to do everything wrong, when I took occasion to make my escape. In the following pages I relate my own, and the escape of some of my companions. W e are now in the United States, waiting for a better future, trying to forget the past, and think ing not too much about the present, which is dull and hard. LEON
CHAUTARD.