The Escape
Perhaps the only way Papillon was actually able to pull off his escape is that he never gave up trying, no matter how many obstacles came in his way. He treated his escape like it was a fact that would definitely happen. There was no “maybe”. His only options were to escape, or die trying. In total, Papillon tried escaping prison 9 different times.
Three years into his sentence, he built a makeshift boat together with other prisoners, and managed to get to the nearby Pigeon Island, which was a leper colony. He then moved on to another island off the Gulf of Maracaibo where he lived with tribal people who collected pearls for several years. He had not just one- but two wives in the tribe, and they were sisters. They had children together, and lived a very happy and peaceful existence.
However, he eventually decided it was time to move on and rejoin civilization. He used the pearls he collected while living with the tribe. He was caught, and brought back to prison. The guards weren’t taking any chances, and put him in solitary confinement on Devil’s Island. The island had steep cliffs without any port where it would be possible to launch a boat. The waves were strong, and would carry anything crashing towards the cliffs. They were so confident that no one would ever escape Devil’s Island, there were not any guards living there to watch over the prisoners.
Papillon stared at the ocean every single day, trying to figure out a way to escape. It’s very possible that his past Navy training is what helped him figure out a solution to the problem. He realized that every seventh wave was bigger than the rest, and was strong enough to carry him out to sea. Together with a fellow convict named Sylvain, they jumped off the cliff with their bags of coconuts, and floated to the mainland of Venezuela. Unfortunately, Sylvain tried to stand up as soon as the water was shallow enough for him to do so. He got stuck in mud that was thick like quicksand, and the waves came crashing over him. He drowned only a few hundred feet from the shore. After seeing this, Papillon stayed on his floatation device until he was safely on land. Even though he had so many friends who tried to escape with him over the years, he was the only one who managed to actually pull it off.