Papillon by Henri Charrière

Diable [Devil's Island] is the smallest of the three Îles du Salut. It is also the northernmost, and the most exposed to wind and waves. After a flat coastal area it rises rapidly to a high plateau where there was the guardhouse and one lone barracks for the bagnards, who numbered about ten. Officially Diable was not supposed to receive ordinary criminals, only those condemned and deported for political reasons.

Each political prisoner had a small house with a tin roof. On Monday he was given his food for the week and, every day, a loaf of bread. There were about thirty of these men. Their orderly was a Dr. Leger who had poisoned his family somewhere near Lyon. The political prisoners had nothing to do with the regular bagnards and sometimes wrote to Cayenne, complaining about this or that bagnard on the island. He was then returned to Royale.