For nearly a century, French Guiana was a land of banishment where the Republic sent tens of thousands of convicts. The “Cayenne penal colony,” the Salvation Islands and the grim Devil’s Island where Alfred Dreyfus was held now belong to a heritage of remembrance that you can explore with respect. Here is the story of this penal system, what remains of it, and how to visit these emotionally charged places during your stay.
What was the penal colony of French Guiana?
The phrase “Cayenne penal colony” is in fact a shorthand. It refers to the entire French colonial penal system established in French Guiana, which was by no means confined to the capital. This system was created by an 1854 law, following on from Napoleon III’s decree, and rested on two distinct regimes:
- Transportation, which applied to convicts sentenced to hard labour.
- Relegation, introduced in 1885, which targeted repeat offenders convicted of minor recurring crimes and sent to French Guiana once their sentence had expired.
To this was added deportation, reserved for certain political prisoners, the most famous of whom were sent to the Salvation Islands. The Guianese penal colony operated from 1852 — the date of the first convoys — until its official abolition. The law ending transportation was passed in 1938, but the Second World War interrupted the process; the last convicts did not actually leave French Guiana until the late 1940s, and the penal administration did not finally close until the early 1950s. The range often cited for the period of real convoy activity is 1852–1946.
In all, it is estimated that roughly 70,000 to 80,000 convicts were sent to French Guiana over the entire period. Many never came back.
The “dry guillotine”: where does the nickname come from?
The penal colony of French Guiana was nicknamed the “dry guillotine” very early on. The expression is cruel but apt: sending a man into this equatorial climate, without sentencing him to death, often amounted to condemning him all the same. Malaria, yellow fever, dysentery, exhaustion from labour and malnutrition decimated the ranks of the prisoners.
One rule made the situation even worse: the “doublage”. Any transported convict sentenced to more than eight years of hard labour had, once his sentence was served, to remain in French Guiana for a period equal to that of his original conviction. Those sentenced to life or to more than eight years therefore stayed for life. This mechanism turned the colony into a trap: even once freed, the former convict remained a prisoner of the territory, without resources and often without any hope of returning to mainland France.
The Transportation Camp at Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni
While Cayenne lends its name to the penal colony in the collective imagination, the true administrative heart of the system lay to the west, at Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, on the river bordering Suriname — 250 km from Cayenne along the RN1, about three hours by road. This is where the ships from France arrived, after a gruelling crossing of several weeks.
The Transportation Camp was the point of disembarkation and sorting. New arrivals were registered there, examined, and then dispatched to the colony’s various forest, agricultural or island camps. Saint-Laurent became a genuine “penal town”: its urban layout, administrative buildings and infrastructure were largely shaped by and for the penal colony.
Today, the Transportation Camp is a listed historic monument and the best preserved, best documented site of remembrance in French Guiana. The main courtyard can be walked freely during opening hours, but the enclosed areas are only opened on a guided tour, which takes you through:
- The collective cells where the transported convicts were packed together.
- The disciplinary quarter and its individual dungeons, along with the hut of the relegated convicts.
- The famous cell said to be Papillon’s — carving on the floor included, even if historians debate its authenticity — which we will come back to.
- The wall of the firing squad.
- The courtyard and the remains where graffiti carved by the prisoners can still be seen.
If the subject holds you, round the visit out with the Relegation Camp at Saint-Jean-du-Maroni, 15 km upstream, and walk the official quarter of Saint-Laurent, where colonial penitentiary architecture is everywhere, from the former hospital to the river station. A dugout canoe outing on the Maroni at sunset (€20 to €35 for about 1h30) is the ideal way to close the day.
To prepare for your trip to this region, our article on the Maroni River and Bushinengé cultures will help you understand the human and geographical context of western French Guiana.
The Salvation Islands: Royale, Saint-Joseph and Devil’s Island
Off the coast of Kourou, around ten kilometres from the shore, lies a small archipelago with a paradoxical name: the Salvation Islands (Îles du Salut). The name dates back to the 18th century, when colonists fleeing the fevers of the mainland found a healthier air there. For the convicts, “salvation” was something else entirely.
The archipelago has three islands, each with its own purpose:
- Île Royale, the largest, housed the administration, the hospital and the ordinary-law prisoners. It is now the heart of the visit.
- Île Saint-Joseph, the most feared of all, was home to solitary confinement: total isolation, enforced silence, dungeons where the troublemakers and would-be escapees were locked away. The confinement quarter, gradually reclaimed by the tropical vegetation, gives off a striking atmosphere. It is only reachable on certain days, depending on the operators.
- Devil’s Island (Île du Diable), the smallest and most isolated, reserved for political prisoners.
A full loop of Île Royale follows a coastal path of about 3 km, an easy walk of 1h30 to 2h but one that calls for closed shoes: the agoutis dig and the roots break the surface. Along the way you pass the convicts’ quarter and its cells overrun by vegetation, the chapel decorated by the forger-painter Francis Lagrange, the military hospital and the director’s house overlooking the sea, and the children’s cemetery of the prison staff, which few visitors leave unmoved. Saïmiri monkeys and free-roaming peacocks, surprisingly tame, complete the scene. From the path, on a clear day, you can take in Dreyfus’s island on one side and the launch pad of the Guiana Space Centre on the mainland on the other: two centuries of French history in a single panorama.
To delve deeper into the archipelago and prepare your crossing, see our dedicated guide to the day trip to the Îles du Salut from Kourou. As the boat leaves Kourou early in the morning, many travellers set up their base an hour’s drive away, in the tropical-wood apartments of the Cayenne Chic residence, in the Zac Hibiscus district of Cayenne.
Dreyfus and Devil’s Island
Devil’s Island owes its worldwide fame to one man: Captain Alfred Dreyfus. A Jewish artillery officer, unjustly accused of treason in 1894 following a trial tainted by antisemitism, he was stripped of his rank and then deported to this tiny island, where he remained imprisoned from 1895 to 1899 in conditions of extreme isolation.
The Dreyfus Affair tore France apart and gave rise to Émile Zola’s resounding “J’accuse…!” in 1898. Dreyfus was finally pardoned, then exonerated in 1906, and reinstated in the army. The small hut where he lived, his constant surveillance and his absolute isolation made this island a symbol of state injustice.
It was also on Devil’s Island that other political deportees were held for a time. The place thus crystallises a dual memory: that of the miscarriage of justice and that of political repression.
