That conditions at the penal colony were extremely severe - 'Forty per cent of new arrivals to the colony perished within the first year.
Anyone receiving a sentence of more than eight years was exiled from France for life. Those transported there ranged from political detainees to convicts of crimes like murder, rape, robbery and smaller petty crimes.
That French Guiana operated as a penal colony from 1852 until 1946.
Having questioned the accuracy of Papillon as an autobiography, there are a number of facts which are not in question, which do validate Charrière's novel. Whilst Belbenoît stated in his book that he had been part of the group of escapees that had turned to cannibalism, Charrière related the story as having happened to a group of other inmates who were incarcerated in the French penal colony at the time of his stay. Whilst not necessarily unusual in itself, both authors also told how one member of the group of escapees had had a wooden leg, and that he had been killed and eaten by the group of escapees, and that his wooden leg has been used as a spit, or as kindling, for the cooking fire.
Both authors also related a story about a group of escapees who had turned to cannibalism to survive.
Both also stated they had taken Indian wives during these periods. Belbenoît and Charrière both stated that they had, whilst escaping the French penal colony, met and lived with tribes of Goajira Indians who lived on the Guajira Peninsula.
Both authors described similar encounters with Goajira Indians.
The most notable similarities between these books were: Dry Guillotine, written by René Belbenoît, was published in 1938, and was also an autobiographical account of Belbenoît's incarceration on, and escape from, the French penal colony at French Guiana.
- City of Papillion websiteĪs well as claims that not all events and jails which Charrière describes correspond to the time frame of events in the book, there are also similarities between sections of Papillon, and sections of a book written 30 years prior - La Guillotine Sèche ( Dry Guillotine).
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Becca Swanson - World's Strongest Woman.
Climate Climate data for Papillion, Nebraska Papillion is home to Nebraska Christian College, accredited by the Association for Biblical Higher Education.
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