Devil Island by the Book

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.