Devil Island by the Book
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Here is a Devil’s Island dictionary:
BAGNARD: Inmate of a bagne, a French prison.
BELOTE: Four-handed game played with a 32-card deck. By convict custom, a new dealer was selected by a knife fight.
CAVALE: An escape or prison break; from cheval, French word for horse. In other words, get on your horse and go.
ILE DU DIABLE DEUXIEME: Poulo Condore, France’s other penal colony off the tip of South Vietnam.
RECLUSIONNAIRE: Convict in solitary confinement at Le Reclusion Disciplinaire, the dungeons on St. Joseph where total silence was the rule.
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