The prisoners of Cabrera

by Denis Smith

"Off the coast of Spain sits the island of Cabrera, a small, little-known island, and the site of one of the least known but most inhumane events of the Napoleonic Wars. For five years, from May 1809 to May 1814, Cabrera was an unwalled prison holding thousands of Napoleon's soldiers. The prisoners - sent to Cabrera after their terms of surrender at the battle of Bailen were betrayed - thought they were boarding ships sailing for France but found themselves thrust into a virtual state of nature on a deserted island.". "The prisoners and their camp followers landed with only the clothes on their backs, no shelter, an insufficient source of fresh water, no food supply other than the meager starvation rations dropped-off intermittently by the Spanish, and no news of the world beyond the island. While Napoleon battled on in Europe, in this pre-Geneva Convention prison camp suffering was extreme. Seemingly forgotten by the French and barely sustained by the Spanish, up to half the twelve th