Devils Island

Devils Island, rocky islet off the Atlantic coast of French Guiana. The smallest of the three Îles du Salut, about 10 miles (16 km) from the mainland and the Kourou River mouth, it is a narrow strip of land about 3,900 feet (1,200 metres) long and 1,320 feet (400 metres) broad, mostly covered by palm trees.

Part of a penal settlement, the island housed the convicts’ leper colony until the Îles du Salut were made a maximum-security area. The island’s most famous prisoner was Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer unjustly condemned for treason, who arrived on April 13, 1895; he was released on June 5, 1899, having written a journal and more than 1,000 letters in captivity. Dreyfus was succeeded by other political prisoners and, during World War I, by spies and deserters, chiefly from tropical countries and not of French birth. Transportation of prisoners to French penal colonies was abolished by a decree of June 17, 1938, although the last prisoners did not leave Devils Island until 1953.

The island was later promoted as a winter resort and has a growing tourist trade.