ESCAPING TO DEVIL’S ISLAND
Tropical sun has dazzled away the shadows of the past in this surprising paradise.
Tropical sun has dazzled away the shadows of the past in this surprising paradise.
Wise travelers know there’s more to Devil’s Island than the imposing name. When planning an upcoming vacation, the typical group’s priorities might include relaxing amid palm trees, ocean breezes, tidal pools and beautiful fragrant flowers. After a few minutes of batting around destinations such as Hawaii, Tahiti and the Caribbean, you might hear the unlikely words, “And of course we’ve got to hit Devil’s Island.”
The knee-jerk response might well be: “Are you nuts?” But seasoned sightseers already know that a serene beauty now flourishes on the site of one of the darkest chapters in French history. Today, the area is tranquil and full of life, a tropical testament to Mother Nature’s timeless splendor.
Naturally, before going any further, we have to separate this forbiddingly named coastal area of French Guiana as it is today from its nightmarish nearhundred-year history. So let’s begin by addressing that distant past, and then we’ll reveal some very compelling reasons to experience the place today.
A DARK HISTORY
No one can deny that the very words “Devil’s Island” convey grotesque images of the place once known as “Green Hell.” There have been very few spots on earth more infamous than the French penal colony that existed at the northern tip of South America between 1852 and 1953.
As it’s usually used, the term Devil’s Island is really collective. It actually refers to three rocky islands, not just one: Ile du Royale, Ile du Diable (Devil’s Island) and Ile du Saint- Joseph. Prisoners were housed on all three of the islands about 12 miles off the coast. And in fact there were also cells and work camps on the mainland in Kourou and in Cayenne, the colony’s capital.
Disregarding a few non-violent political prisoners, only the most dangerous convicts were sent there — more than 60,000 hardened criminals during the 100-year period of Devil’s Island’s existence. Fewer than 2,000 survived.
It’s no accident or exaggeration that former inmate René Belbenoît titled his book on the facility Dry Guillotine. A deadly combination of horrors killed hundreds of men a day: brutal working conditions, rampant disease, food rations that
TODAY, THE AREA IS TRANQUIL AND FULL OF LIFE, A TROPICAL TESTAMENT TO MOTHER NATURE’S TIMELESS SPLENDOR.
barely kept inmates from starvation, severe beatings by guards and gross overcrowding that promoted prisoneron-prisoner violence.
Escape? Forget it. Prison staff members were fond of saying, “We have two very effective guardians on our side: the jungle and the sea.”
Very apt, since the jungle at that time was full of caimans, army ants and the fearless giant rodents known as agoutis. (In reality, they’re mild-mannered and harmless — but that’s not something the guards would tell their charges.) The rivers and other bodies of fresh water were (they said) filled with piranhas. And if a man happened to make it past those obstacles to the sea, he would (supposedly) wind up as shark food.
Most of the men — about 99 percent — were housed on Ile du Royale, the largest of the islands. They slept in small cells with their legs shackled all night, making it impossible to turn.
Even more feared was the facility on
Ile du Saint-Joseph, where men would be sent for solitary confinement, walled up in 12-foot-high roofless cells with barely room to sit down, forbidden to talk to anyone, even the guards who brought their food. One escape attempt got you two years in solitary. A second attempt, five years.
Ile du Diable itself, a former leper colony, was reserved for political prisoners — the most famous inhabitant being Alfred Dreyfus, who spent five years there on trumped-up charges of spying. The coming-to-light of Dreyfus’ story did much to bring about the dismantling of the prison.
So what would motivate anyone to go there?
PARADISE REGAINED
The area has exerted a magnetic pull on visitors from around the world, drawn to the lush natural spaces, evocative ruins and outlandish animals. The jungle, left to its own devices for decades, has reclaimed many of the prison buildings. The roads the prisoners built now serve as shaded paths under a leafy canopy, where monkeys leap from branch to branch.
THE REAL LEGACY OF DEVIL’S ISLAND – A PLACE WHERE NATURE HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO RECLAIM THE PAST AND FILL IT WITH NEW LIFE.
Before the prison was ever conceived, these breezy islands were known as the “Iles de Salut” (“Isles of Salvation”), a name that’s now been restored by the French government. Then as now, the locals recognized something blissful about the area.
And, the islands and nearby mainland house the Guiana Space Centre. The European Space Agency uses Kourou to launch capsules carrying supplies to the International Space Station.
Reality seems to contradict the common belief about its climate. In his book Papillon, probably the best-known source of information about Devil’s Island, famed inmate Henri Charrière described the area as oppressively hot. Experts today are pretty much in agreement that Charrière’s book, and the subsequent popular film adapted from it, is largely fiction. Most adventures the author claimed as his own were either invented or were based on the exploits of others. And selling the idea of hellish heat enhanced the idea of him as a hero. True, French Guiana is virtually on the equator. But balmy sea breezes cool the islands, and big, waxy palm leaves provide an abundance of shade.
Unlike the times when would-be escapees fell victim to caimans and army ants, there are plenty of safe, scenic trails on Ile du Royale and Ile du Saint- Joseph (the only islands now open to tourists).
Ile du Diable can still be seen, however.
“Many spots on Royale command an unobstructed view of bucolic Devil’s Island,” wrote acclaimed author Edwin McDowell in 1983, “which, with its sparkling shoreline and unbroken palm trees, resembles a Club Med vacation spa.”
Former inmate Francis Lagrange, author of Flag on Devil’s Island, served 15 years on Royale. You’d think he’d want to get as far away from there as possible, but upon his release in 1946, he chose to stay on as a free man. Many others find the environment soothing as well.
“There’s a real beauty about the place,” says one frequent visitor. “There are majestic butterflies the size of birds. There are refreshing tidal pools. And brilliant bougainvillea and wildflowers abound.”
This, then, is the real legacy of Devil’s Island – a place where nature has been allowed to reclaim the past and fill it with new life.