Devil’s Island

Last year we stopped on Devil’s Island as well – but I wanted to get off the ship again to see if I could see more of the island and see if there were any more monkeys this year.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have a ton of time to explore any more – but myself and the lifestylist Jo went out for an hour.  I did see monkeys…TONS of them this year. 

Last year we had only seen the squirrel monkeys (I think that’s what they’re called) – this year we saw lots of those but a ton of these bigger monkeys.  The downside is that this year, all the monkeys were very aggressive.  They were all screaming and yelling and it was almost a bit scary at times!  There’s not much to tell about the island because there isn’t much there – they speak French and there’s only a few tourists that stay on the island at a time. 

If you read the book Papillion, it has all the information about the original purpose for the island which was to house the prisoners.  Here’s some of my favorite pictures from the day and a small blurb from Wikipedia about the island itself…

     

 

    

“Devil's Island (French: île du Diable) is the smallest and northernmost island of the three Îles du Salut located about 6 nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi) off the coast of French Guiana (South America). It has an area of 14 ha (34.6 acres). It was a small part of the notorious French penal colony in French Guiana until 1952. It lies in the Atlantic Ocean.

The rocky, palm-covered island rises 40 m (130 ft) above sea level. The penitentiary was first opened by Emperor Napoleon III's government in 1852, and became one of the most infamous prisons in history. In addition to the prisons on all three islands, prison facilities were located on the mainland at Kourou. Over time, they became known collectively as "Devil's Island" in the English-speaking world, while they are known in France as the bagne de Cayenne (French: Cayenne penal colony), Cayenne being the main city of French Guiana.

While the colony was in use (1852–1946), the inmates were everything from political prisoners (such as 239 republicans who opposed Napoleon III's coup d'état) to the most hardened of thieves and murderers. A great many of the more than 80,000 prisoners sent to the harsh conditions at disease-infested Devil's Island were never seen again. As an island, the only way out was via the water; accordingly, very few convicts ever managed to escape.

On 30 May 1854, a new law provided that convicts would be forced to stay in French Guiana following their release for a time equal to their forced labour time, or, for sentences exceeding eight years, for the remainder of their lives. They were to be provided with land to settle on. In time, a variety of penal regimes emerged, convicts being divided into categories according to the severity of their crimes and their imprisonment or forced residence regime.^[1]

In 1885, a further law accelerated the process, since repeat offenders for minor crimes could also be sent. A limited number of convicted women were also sent to French Guiana, with the intent that they marry the freed male inmates; however, the results were poor and the government discontinued the practice in 1907.^[1]

The horrors of the penal settlement became notorious with the publicity surrounding the plight of the French army captain Alfred Dreyfus, who had been unjustly convicted of treason and sent there on 5 January 1895.^[2]”