| Heaving on its axes and caught between the charcoal | | | | had been the equivalent of removing the soul itself, |
| strata of sea below and cloud above at 1600, the | | | | since the essence of will, direction, and action had |
| tiny Royal Princess penetrated no-man's land, that | | | | been the propelling force behind every living human. |
| portion of ocean beyond the Caribbean Sea and its | | | | A rocky, inclining path, leading from the single-boat |
| multitude of islands densely trafficked by cruise ships | | | | pier to the island's interior, yielded to a cobblestone, |
| unleashing tourists by the thousands on a daily basis, | | | | green moss-overgrown one and threaded its way |
| and the desolate morosity of the northeastern | | | | through dense palm trees, lush vegetation, and thick |
| quadrant of ocean off of South America where few | | | | humidity. Hack out a clearing in a malaria-ridden jungle, |
| ventured, destined for the pinpoint specks of the | | | | I had thought, and man will find a use for it, as the |
| Salvation Islands, the gem of which, Devil's Island, had | | | | French had with the penal colony they had |
| "sparkled" with a penitentiary-inhabited population | | | | established here. |
| which had vacated the landmass in 1953, leaving a | | | | The island's sole museum, located half-way up the |
| desolate, although tropically lush lilly pad visited only a | | | | path, had been a dual-floored, wrought-iron balconied |
| few times per year by this very vessel. I had indeed | | | | cottage with an off-red and cream facade, shuttered |
| made a statement concerning the relative | | | | windows, and a wooden shingled roof, and displayed |
| allocentricity of my travel, a decision whose steps I | | | | island-related artifacts, models, and diagrams. |
| urgently needed to re-examine in order to | | | | A walk to the path's summit had been met with a |
| re-establish how they had connected with each other | | | | treed, green grass expanse of the island proper, and |
| and how they had somehow led to the current one. | | | | several penal colony-remnant structures, such as the |
| Perhaps the brain's logic of progression had failed to | | | | two-story, balconied "Gendarmerie Poste des Iles" or |
| incorporate emotionalization in its deduction process. | | | | "island police station," and the brick and block "Eglise |
| Yet, here I was, and the idea of turning back now | | | | Classee," or church, which had been constructed in |
| had been less logical than the one which had led me | | | | 1854. Its "Chapelle des Iles - espace de liberte" or |
| here. | | | | "island chapel - area of freedom," sported a stone |
| Despite my internal hesitations, the ship externally | | | | floor; a wooden, slated roof; painted, wooden murals |
| plowed on at 15 knots... | | | | depicting prison life; an upper floor; and a steeple. |
| At 1300, the Royal Princess began its final approach | | | | The island's many antiquated, decaying stone walls |
| to the Salvation Islands' Pilot Station, their | | | | and pillars had provided testaments to the equally |
| almost-gray silhouettes, devoid of an appreciable, | | | | fading memory of this historical period, relics which |
| topographical distinctions, appearing ahead and to the | | | | had been intentionally eradicated from the memories |
| right of the bow beneath the mostly cloud-draped | | | | of the souls which had been enslaved by them. |
| sky. Reducing speed to little more than a crawl, it | | | | The prominent, orange lighthouse hailed from 1934. |
| moved past St. Joseph, whose sandy perimeter | | | | The small, crumbling, moss-overgrown children's |
| received periodic onslaughts of white, foamy surf | | | | cemetery, sporting cross-adorned graves, provided a |
| from the ocean, and embarked its local pilot at 1332, | | | | strong statement of injustice: the hot, humid, cruel, |
| who maneuvered it into a starboard approach to its | | | | harsh, disease outcrop, coupled with the premature |
| anchorage off of Ile Royale's leeward side in the | | | | deaths of those who had never made it to adulthood |
| thick, humid, almost oppressive air. | | | | and therefore had never begun to forge their life |
| Located on the northern coast of South America | | | | paths, had resulted in a final resting place, on the far |
| between Suriname and Brazil, French Guiana, which | | | | side of the island not far from the ocean, which had |
| had been settled by the French during the 17th | | | | been isolated, crumbling, and seldom-visited. How, |
| century, is both an Overseas Department and an | | | | indeed, can one be remembered for his contributions |
| Overseas Region and constitutes the largest portion | | | | and achievements when he had never lived long |
| of the European Union outside of the European | | | | enough to create them? |
| continent itself. | | | | The summit-perimeter path led round the cottages |
| Its three main geographical regions comprise the | | | | of the island's only "auberge," which featured stucco |
| coast, where most of its 209,000 population is | | | | walls, shuttered windows, corrugated metal roofs, |
| concentrated; its dense, almost-impenetrable rain | | | | and small front porches. |
| forest, which gradually gains elevation as it | | | | Amid the decaying ruins, half-walls, and cells had been |
| approaches the Tumac-Humac Mountains on the | | | | the "quartier des condamnes" which featured the |
| Brazilian border; and the two island groups off the | | | | rusting, wrought-iron bases once used as beds and |
| coast, the Iles du Salut and the Ile de Connetable, | | | | the wall-connected bars to which the prisoners had |
| the latter a bird sanctuary. | | | | been nightly shackled. It had been in the narrow cells |
| The Barrage de Petit-Saut hydroelectric dam, located | | | | with their small, single, high-arched windows covered |
| in the north, provides power, while fishing, gold | | | | with wrought iron bars where the prisoners had |
| mining, timber, and eco-tourism are its predominant | | | | awaited the completion of their sentences or death, |
| economic activities. The Guiana Space Centre, in | | | | both of which had served as "releases." |
| Kourou, employs 1,700. Principle transportation | | | | The solitary confinement cells, which were located |
| includes the international airport in the suburbs of | | | | across the way and were equally small, offered no |
| Cayenne, the capital; the Degrad des Cannes | | | | window and, hence, when their doors had been |
| Seaport; and an asphalt road from Cayenne to the | | | | closed, were reduced to total blackness. Channels of |
| Brazilian border. | | | | human senses and perception had served no purpose |
| The Iles du Salut, or Salvation Islands, lie eight miles | | | | during these times. |
| northeast of Kourou in the mid-Atlantic and comprise | | | | A weed-overgrown reservoir had been dug by the |
| Ile Royale, Ile St. Joseph, and Ile du Diable. | | | | prisoners, who had done so while braving the |
| Settled by French colonists seeking to escape the | | | | oppressive, breath-inhibiting humidity; torrential rains; |
| disease-ridden jungle of the low lands on the | | | | disease-transmitting mosquitoes; and skin-tarring rays |
| continent proper in 1760, they subsequently served | | | | of the equatorial sun, one teaspoon at a time-the |
| as outposts for ships too large to dock in Cayenne, | | | | only "tools" they had been given to complete the |
| and were initially known as "Iles du Diable" or "Devil's | | | | project. |
| Islands." | | | | A walk through the small hotel's lobby, which had |
| Ile Royale, the largest of the three and the only one | | | | been the prison warden's mess hall and now housed |
| still inhabited, had been the headquarters of the | | | | the bar and a tiny gift shop, led to a tabled, outdoor |
| prison governor of the infamous 19th-century French | | | | patio where patrons eat the daily three-course |
| penal colony, which had housed more than 80,000 | | | | "menu," quoted in euros, and enjoy views of the |
| prisoners in the 101 years between 1852 and 1953. | | | | actual, rock, palm-covered, 131-foot-high Devil's Island |
| Its current hotel had been the prison warden's mess | | | | across the water, which had served as the Emperor |
| hall. | | | | Napoleon III's decreed penitentiary. |
| The actual Ile du Diable, the smallest of the three | | | | The collective, three pinpoints known as "Devil's |
| and measuring 1,320-by-3,900 feet, accommodated | | | | Island," had, more than any other place, been a study |
| the leper colony. Among the most famous prisoners, | | | | of cruelty, torture, endurance, and survival inflicted |
| which had encompassed spies, political prisoners, and | | | | by humans to humans, which used the planet's |
| World War I deserters, Alfred Dreyfus, a French | | | | existing, natural elements to heighten it, and hence |
| Army Officer, had been falsely accused of treason, | | | | forced one to examine that fine, instantaneously |
| completing more than four years of his sentence on | | | | severable line between life and death, the island's |
| the hot, humid, rain-deluged island from April 13, 1895 | | | | conditions often inducing one to think "beyond" that |
| to June 5, 1899, and Henry Charriere, allegedly the | | | | line as the sometimes only viable alternative of |
| only prisoner to have escaped and to have lived to | | | | "escape." |
| tell the tale in the now-famous book, Papillon. | | | | As a study, it had offered two paradoxes over and |
| A June 17, 1938 decree abolished prisoner | | | | above the one already contemplated upon arriving |
| transportation to French penal colonies, although it | | | | here. The first of these involved past primitiveness |
| had taken another 15 years before the last one had | | | | and future advancement. Its harsh, uninhabited |
| been removed. | | | | conditions, only now overgrown with lush flora, |
| St. Joseph, which grew in size as the ship approached | | | | beckons of the bowels of human |
| it, sported dense, tropical vegetation above its rocky | | | | behavior-criminality-yet its present tracking station |
| perimeter, in which several pink, wooden cottages, | | | | serving the Ariane Space Program whose launch pad, |
| almost choked by the flora, pierced the green | | | | located 12 miles away on the French Guiana mainland, |
| canvas. Ile Royale, a short swim away, had been | | | | hinted at its future, as it now plays a role in manned |
| thresholded by a small pier and several anchored | | | | and unmanned missile and rocket launches which |
| sailboats. Civilization beyond the prison population had | | | | transcend the boundary of the planet itself, an |
| somehow established itself here and the boats had | | | | example of humans fostering advancement for the |
| provided its maritime entry. | | | | benefit of humans, and hence the diametric opposite |
| Grinding engines eight minutes later indicated the | | | | use of the island for humankind's goals. The world is, |
| release of the starboard anchor with four shackles at | | | | according to Shakespeare, indeed a stage, and its |
| a 50-degree, 16-minute north latitude and 52-degree, | | | | people only players in whatever scenario it is deemed |
| 35-minute west longitude position. Considerable time | | | | most appropriate for its current cause. Time and |
| ensured before it had been determined that the sea | | | | intended goal are the parameters which had |
| state would permit safe tender operation, upon | | | | distinguished Devil's Island from past to future, from |
| which a voice over the ship's public address system | | | | penal colony to space program, from planetary prison |
| ultimately pierced the safe, vacation-oriented delusion | | | | to planetary escape. |
| with the words, "Welcome to the penal colony of | | | | The second of the latently discovered paradoxes had |
| Devil's Island!" The miles covered through no-man's | | | | been created by my ship itself, the Royal Princess, |
| land (or sea) from the Caribbean to the northeastern | | | | anchored in the distance and visible as I descended |
| edge of South America had deposited me here, and | | | | the cobblestone path back to the pier. Appearing an |
| the "tourist route" had been well behind me now. | | | | infinitesimal speck in the vastness of ocean already |
| To put a foot on tiny Ile Royale, or "Royal Island," | | | | sailed, it had, at the same time, served as the |
| which had been more popularly known as "Devil's | | | | "bridge" of connectivity, the floating path I had |
| Island," where 80,000 had, until 1953, been accused, | | | | walked to travel here, re-linking civilization. Because of |
| correctly or incorrectly, and imprisoned, and whose | | | | Devil's Island's population scarcity, and its very |
| sole goal, amidst the brutal conditions, had been to | | | | uncivilized historical use, it had, in essence, been |
| escape, had certainly constituted one of the | | | | civilization-and hence seemed grossly out-of-place. |
| definitions of "exotic travel." That step both contrarily | | | | As I crossed the short distance from the island to |
| and paradoxically served to fulfill the opposite of the | | | | the anchored vessel on the ship's tender filled with |
| prisoners' intentions and desires, of escape. The | | | | thoughts, lessons, and paradoxes, of one thing I had |
| island, upon retrospect, had nothing to do with the | | | | been quite sure-namely, that I had performed a feat |
| desire and, hence direction of, travel to or from it, | | | | its 80,000 prisoners had only dreamt of-the rapid, |
| but instead personal will which, upon further | | | | effortless, unimpeded, willful departure from it, |
| examination, took on diametrically-opposed directions | | | | without a single hindrance or hesitation. |
| when the action had been self- or other-determined, | | | | Obstacles in life are, indeed, only insurmountable |
| the former pertaining to my circumstance to travel | | | | when another person's will is contrary to your |
| here and the latter to the prisoners' to flee it. To | | | | own-the ultimate source of planetary conflict. |
| remove that core of the soul, that self-determination, | | | | |