In Cayenne, the majority of the prisoners are negroes, Arabs and Annamites. Now most of the outcasts are sent to unsaintly St. Laurent. Formerly they were herded at Cayenne, the three Iles du Salut, on one of which Captain Dreyfus was imprisoned, and the Kourou River, La Mere being reserved as a home for the old and sick. The convicts have trades, and are bakers, carpenters and tanners, etc. They make curios, such as balata boats, whips with Kaiser and dog heads on the handle, separable tables, fibre vanity bags, and cigar-cutters in the shape of a guillotine. They are employed as balata-bleeders and in gold-camps, and have built some thrifty miles of road in the country where there is little agriculture or cattle-raising. The little money made is spent on rum and tobacco, and the franc notes saved are tightly rolled up in a small cylindrical receptacle which they use as a suppository to prevent robbery—nevertheless, horrible murders and mutilations are common. There is the cut-throat class sent here from Paris for life. Inhabitants tell you that if they boldly and insultingly beg you for gold, you should give them lead. Then there is a harmless class made up of those convicted three times for some petty offense. Cayenne twice a year. The culprits had steel-cage cabins to prevent them from jumping overboard and swimming home across the Atlantic. As the Athenians sent youths and maidens to be devoured by the Minotaur every year, so this monstrous country eats up 2,000 convicts annually. In the old days, when a prisoner died, the corpse was sewn in a sack, taken to the water and a bell tolled. The sharks knew the sound and instantly rose to the surface, making it black with their fins as they hastened to the funeral meat. Felons with sentences for more than five years are compelled to serve an additional term of the same period as settlers in the colony. When a contractor wants convict labor, he gets it from the government for so much money if it can be spared. The “liberes,” though having served their term, are not free to leave the colony, and since the work is done by the regular prisoners, it is hard to land a job. Accordingly, many starve to death, unless they steal provisions. They may be skilful artisans, but have no tools, are not wanted in town, so they go to the country to loaf or pilfer, where they are arrested and punished as tramps. Often for petty theft an overseer ties his victim to a tree and beats him with a balata whip. When they do procure work it is big with little wages. It is impossible for the white man to work in the sun or stand like a black man all day in the water. Many convict camps are abandoned on account of unhealthy surroundings.