BONAPARTE'S RETREAT, ST. HELENA AND OTHER ISLANDS
ST. HELENA ISLAND
We sailed from Namibia on a Northwesterly course to St. Helena, one of the most isolated islands in the world. It is located in the South Atlantic Ocean 1200 miles west of the Namibia-Angola border in Africa, and 1800 miles east of the Brazilian coast. The Saints, as the inhabitants are known, were very happy to see us, as few cruise ships come to the island.
St. Helena (pronounced Hel EENA, not HEL ena like the capital of Montana) was named after the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine. In the 19th Century, the island was considered the ideal place to exile Napoleon. Consider that he had already escaped from Elba to cause more commotion in Europe. The lines of communication between Europe and St. Helena are measured in months and years rather than days. Napoleon was dropped off in St. Helena in 1815 and died in 1821, probably from boredom. There were other causes as I'll explain later.
This is a beautiful tropical island with lush vegetation. The island is small--only 10 miles by 6 miles. The population is about 4800, and everyone knows everyone else. Unlike New York or London, these folks wave at you when you go by. The island was uninhabited until 1653 when the British East India Company planted the Union Jack there. The Saints are a melting pot of British, African and Chinese descent. Chinese laborers were brought to the island after the British freed all the slaves.
St. Helena is officially a British Overseas Territory, administered with 2 other islands in the South Atlantic--Ascension and Tristan di Cunha, and they aren't exactly neighbors. In fact, Ascension is 800 miles north, and Tristan di Cunha is 1500 miles south. Although the total area is almost as large as the United States, the total land area is only 156 square miles and home to 5600 people. Jamestown, the capital of this huge territory has less than 1000 people.
Jamestown is the only city, if you can call it that, on the island. It is located in a valley surrounded by high cliffs. The British built a fort on top. To bring in supplies, they built a staircase to the top--no escalators in those days. They call it Jacob's Ladder. We're talking 699 steps to the top. If you climb it, and many tourists do, they give you a certificate. There is an alternative. You can drive up on a one lane mountain road. If someone is driving the other way, there are few turnouts to allow motorists to pass. We rode a rickety bus on narrow mountain roads all over the island with precipitous drops on the edge.
The most famous attractions of the island are Napoleon's house, Longwood, and his grave. When Napoleon died in 1821, and we saw his deathbed, he was buried on the island. The French insisted on recovering the body, and in 1840, they exhumed him and moved him to Les Invalides in Paris where he is buried today.
But the St. Helena grave is still there, surrounded by a metal picket fence, and a French flag waving nearby. The gravestone is blank because of a diplomatic row with the British. The French wanted the gravestone to say "Napoleon". The British governor insisted on also inscribing "Bonaparte". The French objected. They never did come to an agreement.
It is difficult to get to the grave. You enter through a gate and archway and walk on a grassy path downhill for almost a mile. When you get there, you view the grave from about 30 feet above. Then you must walk that mile back to the bus, uphill this time.
When we visited Longwood, the house built for Napoleon, we learned many things about the Emperor. For one thing, he wasn't that short. He was between 5'2" and 5'7" which was about average height for the time. When he joined the military, he was assigned to artillery. Taller soldiers were assigned to the infantry, presumably to scare the enemy. Napoleon was short compared to George Washington or Abe Lincoln who towered over their contemporaries--or even his wife Josephine who was slightly taller. When surrounded by tall, strapping bodyguards, Napoleon looked even shorter by comparison.
Longwood is a comfortable house on a hill overlooking much of the island. The British government built the house for Napoleon, but after a year or so, they felt Longwood was inadequate for a former emperor. They decided to build a new house for him at nearby Rosemary Hall. Napoleon never occupied it. The British had second thoughts about it, and they determined it would be harder to escape from Longwood.
The site is administered by the French government, who purchased it in 1858 after considerable negotiations with Napoleon III. The Tricolor flies there. Napoleon had a regular bed and many pictures on the wall. There is a polished wood dining room table and silverware. For a prisoner, he was treated well, but he constantly complained about the location which was damp, windswept and unhealthy. He amused himself playing chess. He also tended the flower gardens next to the house. By the 1940's, the house fell into disrepair because of termite infestation, and the French considered demolishing it. Fortunately for us, the authorities decided to restore it to its present state as a museum. Tourists can buy souvenir t-shirts, caps and books in the house.
Napoleon died there in 1821. Originally they thought it was stomach cancer, but modern medical science has established that the cause of death was actually arsenic poisoning. The wallpaper in the house contained high levels of arsenic. The British may not have liked Napoleon but the poisoning was not deliberate--arsenic was commonly used at that time in many household furnishings.
Nearby are the ruins of Halley's Observatory, built by Edmund Halley himself in 1677 to study the Southern constellations. Halley, best known for his namesake comet, published a star map of the Southern Hemisphere.
WORLD'S OLDEST INHABITANT
St. Helena's other famous personality is Jonathan, a 186 year old Seychelles Giant Tortoise who weighs over 600 pounds. He lives on the grounds of the Plantation House, the governor's mansion with 3 other giant tortoises, Fredrika, Emma and David. The creatures eat bananas, cabbage and carrots, and probably Viagra also. When we were there, Jonathan lumbered over to a female tortoise at top speed of 0.6 mph and climbed on top. I looked away. But I got pictures. I'll put them on the Internet.
The story here is that Jonathan who was not named yet, was brought to St. Helena from the Seychelles Islands in 1882 when he was about 50. Nobody is sure why. His age was estimated based on the fact that it takes about 50 years for a tortoise to fully mature. Over the years Jonathan tried unsuccessfully to mate with Fredrika. The authorities would have approved. However, they received some bad news several years ago--the vet discovered that Fredrika is actually a male. He should actually be Fredrick. The vet suggested that Jonathan is either sterile or gay. We know that Jonathan is almost completely blind (from cataracts). Well that explains things!
Jonathan was named by Governor Spencer Davis back in the 1930's but nobody is sure why he picked that name. We do know that was the only significant accomplishment of Davis's 6 year reign. We knew the songs "Gimme Some Lovin" and "I'm a Man", but that turned out to be a different Spencer Davis.
St. Helena is mountainous and tropical. The scenery is spectacular. There is little or no flat land. That became a problem when the British government wanted to build an airport. Ultimately they had to fill in a valley with hundreds of millions of tons of dirt and rock for the construction. The only planes flying to St. Helena come from Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa a couple times a week.
Despite its small size and population, the island is civilized. We walked around Jamestown, visiting the supermarket, the bank, the St. Helena Distillery. Most of the buildings are Georgian style, built in the 1700's by the East India Company. Their home brew is called Tungi, fermented from prickly pear cactus which grows wild on the island. I had a toothache when I arrived in town, so I sought out a dentist. I found out there are 2 dentists on the island, but I couldn't get an appointment. Fortunately, with a few doses of Tungi and some antibiotics from the ship's doctor, I recovered.
DEVILS ISLAND, FRENCH GUIANA
We crossed the Equator which meant we were halfway home. The Equator is a menagerie lion (darn spellcheck--imaginary line) going around the world. There was no sign indicating we were there, no dotted lines, no anything, just endless water.
On a long voyage across the ocean, we marveled at the seabirds and wildlife. Lorraine, an Australian lady we knew, looked out the window and exclaimed, "Look at the boobies!" "There's another booby." My head was spinning around. Where? She was referring to brown boobies, a type of seabird. I guess I've heard of blue footed boobies, but they are native to the Galapagos Islands.
We had breakfast with Vanita, a proper Southern lady, who was on her fifth Around the World Cruise on Princess (she previously did three on the QEII). She was telling us that on the QEII in 2006, the ship was attacked by pirates. The passengers were unaware. They saw the ship surrounded by small boats. They couldn't be fishing boats because they weren't fishing. Well that ship had a machine that directs sound waves at the pirates which essentially blows out their eardrums. It made them jump overboard. Later it was discovered that one shot had gone through a cabin on the ship. Nobody was injured. The cruise ships may not be armed, but they are prepared. That story made us feel better.
The north coast of South America lies just north of the Equator. The ship's crew made a big deal about going to the famous, or infamous Devils Island, home to the notorious French prison. Fittingly, the cruise ship ran the Steve McQueen-Dustin Hoffman movie, Papillon, the story about the French prisoner who escaped from there on a raft made from coconuts. Hollywood recently remade the movie, but I liked the McQueen version.
Devils Island achieved worldwide notoriety as the involuntary home of French artillery captain Alfred Dreyfus who in 1894 was framed for spying and spent 6 years there as a guest of the French government. He was accused of passing military secrets to the Germans. Before long, the new head of military intelligence discovered the real culprit, but the higher-ups in the French military wouldn't hear of it. The brass secretly made a decision that Dreyfus, who was Jewish and successful, must pay the price. The press fanned the flames of anti-Semitism. After Dreyfus was convicted, the French, in a public ceremony, branded him as a "Jewish spy", as the crowd shouted "Death to the Jew."
The world learned all about the French justice system when celebrated author Emile Zola wrote books and articles about the Dreyfus Affair. Zola wrote a famous article, J'Accuse in which he accused the French military of a major cover-up. This created a worldwide brouhaha in 1898 when the military sued Zola for libel and convicted him.
Zola fled to England and spent his life trying to clear Dreyfus's name. Zola was very famous but all the publicity he garnered was still not enough to free Captain Dreyfus. Eventually, in 1906, Dreyfus was exonerated and returned to the army with the rank of Major. He served honorably in World War I.
We always thought the French were nice guys, lovable losers, who lost every war since the Thirty Years' War in 1648, but it is evident that they weren't that nice. At least the English sent their prisoners to Australia where they had some freedom.
Devils Island is located 9 miles off the mainland of French Guiana which is mostly a malaria infested jungle, or as the P.C. crowd would say, rainforest. Navigating from the island to the mainland is difficult because of treacherous currents and shark infested waters. The capital of French Guiana is Cayenne, but we didn't go there. Devils Island is one of three islands in the group called the Iles du Salut which means "islands of salvation", because priests went there from the mainland to escape the plague. The islands are very close together, and we sailed around them all. We couldn't sail between them because the water is too shallow.
Ile St. Joseph was the administrative center of the colony. Ile Royale, the largest island housed the most notorious prison with 99 percent of the prisoners, including the best known, Henri Charriere, aka Papillon who was one of the two prisoners ever to escape. The other was Clement Duval in 1901, less publicized, who found his way to the U.S. where he lived out his life. About 2000 prisoners were held at any one time. That prison closed in 1946.
Then, of course was Ile du Diable, Devils Island, the smallest of the islands, the site of the infamous prison which finally closed in 1953. Devils Island was mainly used for political prisoners like Captain Dreyfus. This was no country club prison however. The death rate at Devils Island was abysmally high, and the sharks never went hungry because the French would throw the bodies overboard. That 9 mile sail is tough for a small boat, but for a raft or a swimmer, forget it.
The prisons were opened in 1853 by French president Louis Napoleon III. Over the years, some 60,000 prisoners were shipped to the islands. Only about 5% survived. They were forced to do the labor that was previously done by African slaves. The inhuman conditions the prisoners had to endure caused many to go insane or hope for death as a release. When they were released, they were required to spend an equal time settling mainland French Guiana where they were given some land.
To our dismay, the ship wouldn't let us go ashore, probably because the islands have no infrastructure. Today, they are a nature reserve. There are buildings there, but no city or shops. The buildings have not been maintained, they are in decay and have largely been taken over by the jungle.
Back on the ship, in the trivia contest, the question asked was "What country is Paramaribo the capital of?" I answered, "Dutch Guiana" which I thought was the correct answer, and it was correct until 1975 when it became Suriname. They marked it wrong. Nobody called me when it became independent. It wasn't worth arguing about. At least I knew where it was.
GUADELOUPE
Speaking of French islands, we visited the butterfly shaped island of Guadeloupe in the West Indies. The island is best known for its 2 rum distilleries. Rum is made from sugar cane, grown on large plantations on the island, and in fact all over the West Indies. The sugar cane fields were worked by African slaves until slavery was abolished in the wake of the French Revolution. However, Napoleon, who made a career of disrupting things, brought back slavery in 1802. The story was Napoleon's wife, Josephine was the daughter of a plantation owner in nearby Martinique. She whispered in Napoleon's ear that you can't run a plantation without slaves. Slavery was finally abolished in 1848. To replace the slaves, the French brought in indentured servants from India.
On Guadeloupe they erected a statue of Josephine. One night someone took a machete to Josephine's head. The rest of the statue is still there.
Everyone speaks French in Guadeloupe, and their currency is the Euro, worth about $1.25. We hired a local taxi driver who, as it turned out, spoke little English. He was driving a roomy Hyundai Santa Fe SUV in pristine condition. He drove us around the island which has a fine expressway system, but driving through towns, we had to negotiate crowded surface streets.
The highlight of the island for me was the checkerboard cemetery in the town of Morne-a-L'eau. The tombs are all above ground. Each tomb is unique. Virtually all are tiny houses with sloped roofs and porches, decorated with black and white checkerboard tiles. The significance is not clear, but the prevailing thought is that black represents the European color of mourning and white represents the African color of mourning. Every year on All Saints Day there is a big festival at the cemetery. In the days leading up to the holiday, people repaint the tombs every year.
The other highlight is the modernistic slavery museum called the Memorial MACTe, built in 2015 on the site of a former sugar factory and rum distillery overlooking the ocean. This building is over the top, spanning several acres. It was encouraged by UNESCO as part of a UN Slave Route Project, and it is a cultural center dedicated to the memory and history of the slave trade. This two story building is covered with a silvery mesh over a black granite box speckled with quartz. We walked around it but did not go inside--maybe next time in Guadeloupe. The tourist reviews are mostly positive regarding a depressing theme.
BARBADOS
Barbados is the only non-volcanic island in the West Indies. It is very British and has been since 1627. No Indians occupied the island when the British came.
The only thing I wanted to see in Barbados was George Washington's house, and they don't promote it. Most Americans don't realize that the 19 year old Washington came here to visit his brother Larry who had tuberculosis and moved to Barbados for the healthful climate. It was the only time George left the continental United States.
George Washington really did sleep there, although as far as we know, Al Capone didn't. Washington stayed there for several months, but it wasn't healthful for him. He contracted smallpox, but fortunately for us, he survived. That was significant because during the American Revolution, there was a smallpox epidemic among his troops. George was immune.
To our dismay, the house and gates were closed because it was Easter Monday when we visited. We looked around town for information about the Washington House, as it is called, but to no avail. We visited several tourist gift shops, and if you didn't know about the Washington's visit, you would think he had no connection to the island. No postcards, no nothing. Not even an ashtray. Maybe the British didn't like him, and so they don't promote it.
Beneath the house is an extensive network of narrow tunnels through the coral rock to the garrison, presumably to allow the troops to escape during an invasion. They are not handicap accessible--there is apparently no Barbados with Disabilities Act. The tunnels were discovered just a few years ago and are now a tourist attraction--if you know about it. They were apparently built during the 1820's, long after the Washingtons were gone. Next time in Barbados, I'll try not to go on a holiday.
We sailed from Namibia on a Northwesterly course to St. Helena, one of the most isolated islands in the world. It is located in the South Atlantic Ocean 1200 miles west of the Namibia-Angola border in Africa, and 1800 miles east of the Brazilian coast. The Saints, as the inhabitants are known, were very happy to see us, as few cruise ships come to the island.
St. Helena (pronounced Hel EENA, not HEL ena like the capital of Montana) was named after the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine. In the 19th Century, the island was considered the ideal place to exile Napoleon. Consider that he had already escaped from Elba to cause more commotion in Europe. The lines of communication between Europe and St. Helena are measured in months and years rather than days. Napoleon was dropped off in St. Helena in 1815 and died in 1821, probably from boredom. There were other causes as I'll explain later.
This is a beautiful tropical island with lush vegetation. The island is small--only 10 miles by 6 miles. The population is about 4800, and everyone knows everyone else. Unlike New York or London, these folks wave at you when you go by. The island was uninhabited until 1653 when the British East India Company planted the Union Jack there. The Saints are a melting pot of British, African and Chinese descent. Chinese laborers were brought to the island after the British freed all the slaves.
St. Helena is officially a British Overseas Territory, administered with 2 other islands in the South Atlantic--Ascension and Tristan di Cunha, and they aren't exactly neighbors. In fact, Ascension is 800 miles north, and Tristan di Cunha is 1500 miles south. Although the total area is almost as large as the United States, the total land area is only 156 square miles and home to 5600 people. Jamestown, the capital of this huge territory has less than 1000 people.
Jamestown is the only city, if you can call it that, on the island. It is located in a valley surrounded by high cliffs. The British built a fort on top. To bring in supplies, they built a staircase to the top--no escalators in those days. They call it Jacob's Ladder. We're talking 699 steps to the top. If you climb it, and many tourists do, they give you a certificate. There is an alternative. You can drive up on a one lane mountain road. If someone is driving the other way, there are few turnouts to allow motorists to pass. We rode a rickety bus on narrow mountain roads all over the island with precipitous drops on the edge.
The most famous attractions of the island are Napoleon's house, Longwood, and his grave. When Napoleon died in 1821, and we saw his deathbed, he was buried on the island. The French insisted on recovering the body, and in 1840, they exhumed him and moved him to Les Invalides in Paris where he is buried today.
But the St. Helena grave is still there, surrounded by a metal picket fence, and a French flag waving nearby. The gravestone is blank because of a diplomatic row with the British. The French wanted the gravestone to say "Napoleon". The British governor insisted on also inscribing "Bonaparte". The French objected. They never did come to an agreement.
It is difficult to get to the grave. You enter through a gate and archway and walk on a grassy path downhill for almost a mile. When you get there, you view the grave from about 30 feet above. Then you must walk that mile back to the bus, uphill this time.
When we visited Longwood, the house built for Napoleon, we learned many things about the Emperor. For one thing, he wasn't that short. He was between 5'2" and 5'7" which was about average height for the time. When he joined the military, he was assigned to artillery. Taller soldiers were assigned to the infantry, presumably to scare the enemy. Napoleon was short compared to George Washington or Abe Lincoln who towered over their contemporaries--or even his wife Josephine who was slightly taller. When surrounded by tall, strapping bodyguards, Napoleon looked even shorter by comparison.
Longwood is a comfortable house on a hill overlooking much of the island. The British government built the house for Napoleon, but after a year or so, they felt Longwood was inadequate for a former emperor. They decided to build a new house for him at nearby Rosemary Hall. Napoleon never occupied it. The British had second thoughts about it, and they determined it would be harder to escape from Longwood.
The site is administered by the French government, who purchased it in 1858 after considerable negotiations with Napoleon III. The Tricolor flies there. Napoleon had a regular bed and many pictures on the wall. There is a polished wood dining room table and silverware. For a prisoner, he was treated well, but he constantly complained about the location which was damp, windswept and unhealthy. He amused himself playing chess. He also tended the flower gardens next to the house. By the 1940's, the house fell into disrepair because of termite infestation, and the French considered demolishing it. Fortunately for us, the authorities decided to restore it to its present state as a museum. Tourists can buy souvenir t-shirts, caps and books in the house.
Napoleon died there in 1821. Originally they thought it was stomach cancer, but modern medical science has established that the cause of death was actually arsenic poisoning. The wallpaper in the house contained high levels of arsenic. The British may not have liked Napoleon but the poisoning was not deliberate--arsenic was commonly used at that time in many household furnishings.
Nearby are the ruins of Halley's Observatory, built by Edmund Halley himself in 1677 to study the Southern constellations. Halley, best known for his namesake comet, published a star map of the Southern Hemisphere.
WORLD'S OLDEST INHABITANT
St. Helena's other famous personality is Jonathan, a 186 year old Seychelles Giant Tortoise who weighs over 600 pounds. He lives on the grounds of the Plantation House, the governor's mansion with 3 other giant tortoises, Fredrika, Emma and David. The creatures eat bananas, cabbage and carrots, and probably Viagra also. When we were there, Jonathan lumbered over to a female tortoise at top speed of 0.6 mph and climbed on top. I looked away. But I got pictures. I'll put them on the Internet.
The story here is that Jonathan who was not named yet, was brought to St. Helena from the Seychelles Islands in 1882 when he was about 50. Nobody is sure why. His age was estimated based on the fact that it takes about 50 years for a tortoise to fully mature. Over the years Jonathan tried unsuccessfully to mate with Fredrika. The authorities would have approved. However, they received some bad news several years ago--the vet discovered that Fredrika is actually a male. He should actually be Fredrick. The vet suggested that Jonathan is either sterile or gay. We know that Jonathan is almost completely blind (from cataracts). Well that explains things!
Jonathan was named by Governor Spencer Davis back in the 1930's but nobody is sure why he picked that name. We do know that was the only significant accomplishment of Davis's 6 year reign. We knew the songs "Gimme Some Lovin" and "I'm a Man", but that turned out to be a different Spencer Davis.
St. Helena is mountainous and tropical. The scenery is spectacular. There is little or no flat land. That became a problem when the British government wanted to build an airport. Ultimately they had to fill in a valley with hundreds of millions of tons of dirt and rock for the construction. The only planes flying to St. Helena come from Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa a couple times a week.
Despite its small size and population, the island is civilized. We walked around Jamestown, visiting the supermarket, the bank, the St. Helena Distillery. Most of the buildings are Georgian style, built in the 1700's by the East India Company. Their home brew is called Tungi, fermented from prickly pear cactus which grows wild on the island. I had a toothache when I arrived in town, so I sought out a dentist. I found out there are 2 dentists on the island, but I couldn't get an appointment. Fortunately, with a few doses of Tungi and some antibiotics from the ship's doctor, I recovered.
DEVILS ISLAND, FRENCH GUIANA
We crossed the Equator which meant we were halfway home. The Equator is a menagerie lion (darn spellcheck--imaginary line) going around the world. There was no sign indicating we were there, no dotted lines, no anything, just endless water.
On a long voyage across the ocean, we marveled at the seabirds and wildlife. Lorraine, an Australian lady we knew, looked out the window and exclaimed, "Look at the boobies!" "There's another booby." My head was spinning around. Where? She was referring to brown boobies, a type of seabird. I guess I've heard of blue footed boobies, but they are native to the Galapagos Islands.
We had breakfast with Vanita, a proper Southern lady, who was on her fifth Around the World Cruise on Princess (she previously did three on the QEII). She was telling us that on the QEII in 2006, the ship was attacked by pirates. The passengers were unaware. They saw the ship surrounded by small boats. They couldn't be fishing boats because they weren't fishing. Well that ship had a machine that directs sound waves at the pirates which essentially blows out their eardrums. It made them jump overboard. Later it was discovered that one shot had gone through a cabin on the ship. Nobody was injured. The cruise ships may not be armed, but they are prepared. That story made us feel better.
The north coast of South America lies just north of the Equator. The ship's crew made a big deal about going to the famous, or infamous Devils Island, home to the notorious French prison. Fittingly, the cruise ship ran the Steve McQueen-Dustin Hoffman movie, Papillon, the story about the French prisoner who escaped from there on a raft made from coconuts. Hollywood recently remade the movie, but I liked the McQueen version.
Devils Island achieved worldwide notoriety as the involuntary home of French artillery captain Alfred Dreyfus who in 1894 was framed for spying and spent 6 years there as a guest of the French government. He was accused of passing military secrets to the Germans. Before long, the new head of military intelligence discovered the real culprit, but the higher-ups in the French military wouldn't hear of it. The brass secretly made a decision that Dreyfus, who was Jewish and successful, must pay the price. The press fanned the flames of anti-Semitism. After Dreyfus was convicted, the French, in a public ceremony, branded him as a "Jewish spy", as the crowd shouted "Death to the Jew."
The world learned all about the French justice system when celebrated author Emile Zola wrote books and articles about the Dreyfus Affair. Zola wrote a famous article, J'Accuse in which he accused the French military of a major cover-up. This created a worldwide brouhaha in 1898 when the military sued Zola for libel and convicted him.
Zola fled to England and spent his life trying to clear Dreyfus's name. Zola was very famous but all the publicity he garnered was still not enough to free Captain Dreyfus. Eventually, in 1906, Dreyfus was exonerated and returned to the army with the rank of Major. He served honorably in World War I.
We always thought the French were nice guys, lovable losers, who lost every war since the Thirty Years' War in 1648, but it is evident that they weren't that nice. At least the English sent their prisoners to Australia where they had some freedom.
Devils Island is located 9 miles off the mainland of French Guiana which is mostly a malaria infested jungle, or as the P.C. crowd would say, rainforest. Navigating from the island to the mainland is difficult because of treacherous currents and shark infested waters. The capital of French Guiana is Cayenne, but we didn't go there. Devils Island is one of three islands in the group called the Iles du Salut which means "islands of salvation", because priests went there from the mainland to escape the plague. The islands are very close together, and we sailed around them all. We couldn't sail between them because the water is too shallow.
Ile St. Joseph was the administrative center of the colony. Ile Royale, the largest island housed the most notorious prison with 99 percent of the prisoners, including the best known, Henri Charriere, aka Papillon who was one of the two prisoners ever to escape. The other was Clement Duval in 1901, less publicized, who found his way to the U.S. where he lived out his life. About 2000 prisoners were held at any one time. That prison closed in 1946.
Then, of course was Ile du Diable, Devils Island, the smallest of the islands, the site of the infamous prison which finally closed in 1953. Devils Island was mainly used for political prisoners like Captain Dreyfus. This was no country club prison however. The death rate at Devils Island was abysmally high, and the sharks never went hungry because the French would throw the bodies overboard. That 9 mile sail is tough for a small boat, but for a raft or a swimmer, forget it.
The prisons were opened in 1853 by French president Louis Napoleon III. Over the years, some 60,000 prisoners were shipped to the islands. Only about 5% survived. They were forced to do the labor that was previously done by African slaves. The inhuman conditions the prisoners had to endure caused many to go insane or hope for death as a release. When they were released, they were required to spend an equal time settling mainland French Guiana where they were given some land.
To our dismay, the ship wouldn't let us go ashore, probably because the islands have no infrastructure. Today, they are a nature reserve. There are buildings there, but no city or shops. The buildings have not been maintained, they are in decay and have largely been taken over by the jungle.
Back on the ship, in the trivia contest, the question asked was "What country is Paramaribo the capital of?" I answered, "Dutch Guiana" which I thought was the correct answer, and it was correct until 1975 when it became Suriname. They marked it wrong. Nobody called me when it became independent. It wasn't worth arguing about. At least I knew where it was.
GUADELOUPE
Speaking of French islands, we visited the butterfly shaped island of Guadeloupe in the West Indies. The island is best known for its 2 rum distilleries. Rum is made from sugar cane, grown on large plantations on the island, and in fact all over the West Indies. The sugar cane fields were worked by African slaves until slavery was abolished in the wake of the French Revolution. However, Napoleon, who made a career of disrupting things, brought back slavery in 1802. The story was Napoleon's wife, Josephine was the daughter of a plantation owner in nearby Martinique. She whispered in Napoleon's ear that you can't run a plantation without slaves. Slavery was finally abolished in 1848. To replace the slaves, the French brought in indentured servants from India.
On Guadeloupe they erected a statue of Josephine. One night someone took a machete to Josephine's head. The rest of the statue is still there.
Everyone speaks French in Guadeloupe, and their currency is the Euro, worth about $1.25. We hired a local taxi driver who, as it turned out, spoke little English. He was driving a roomy Hyundai Santa Fe SUV in pristine condition. He drove us around the island which has a fine expressway system, but driving through towns, we had to negotiate crowded surface streets.
The highlight of the island for me was the checkerboard cemetery in the town of Morne-a-L'eau. The tombs are all above ground. Each tomb is unique. Virtually all are tiny houses with sloped roofs and porches, decorated with black and white checkerboard tiles. The significance is not clear, but the prevailing thought is that black represents the European color of mourning and white represents the African color of mourning. Every year on All Saints Day there is a big festival at the cemetery. In the days leading up to the holiday, people repaint the tombs every year.
The other highlight is the modernistic slavery museum called the Memorial MACTe, built in 2015 on the site of a former sugar factory and rum distillery overlooking the ocean. This building is over the top, spanning several acres. It was encouraged by UNESCO as part of a UN Slave Route Project, and it is a cultural center dedicated to the memory and history of the slave trade. This two story building is covered with a silvery mesh over a black granite box speckled with quartz. We walked around it but did not go inside--maybe next time in Guadeloupe. The tourist reviews are mostly positive regarding a depressing theme.
BARBADOS
Barbados is the only non-volcanic island in the West Indies. It is very British and has been since 1627. No Indians occupied the island when the British came.
The only thing I wanted to see in Barbados was George Washington's house, and they don't promote it. Most Americans don't realize that the 19 year old Washington came here to visit his brother Larry who had tuberculosis and moved to Barbados for the healthful climate. It was the only time George left the continental United States.
George Washington really did sleep there, although as far as we know, Al Capone didn't. Washington stayed there for several months, but it wasn't healthful for him. He contracted smallpox, but fortunately for us, he survived. That was significant because during the American Revolution, there was a smallpox epidemic among his troops. George was immune.
To our dismay, the house and gates were closed because it was Easter Monday when we visited. We looked around town for information about the Washington House, as it is called, but to no avail. We visited several tourist gift shops, and if you didn't know about the Washington's visit, you would think he had no connection to the island. No postcards, no nothing. Not even an ashtray. Maybe the British didn't like him, and so they don't promote it.
Beneath the house is an extensive network of narrow tunnels through the coral rock to the garrison, presumably to allow the troops to escape during an invasion. They are not handicap accessible--there is apparently no Barbados with Disabilities Act. The tunnels were discovered just a few years ago and are now a tourist attraction--if you know about it. They were apparently built during the 1820's, long after the Washingtons were gone. Next time in Barbados, I'll try not to go on a holiday.
posted by kensuskinreport at
11:42 AM
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