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The military hospital was completed in 1864. Nuns were part of the hospital staff. (A small lighthouse was built just behind the hospital in 1934 when the island got electricity.)

The Salvation Islands (Îles du Salut) got their name from 18th-century settlers hoping to escape disease and hostile natives on the mainland. In 1852 a prison complex opened on the three islands of the group: Royal Island (Île Royale) for the general prison population, Devil’s Island (Île du Diable which was surrounded by strong currents) for political prisoners, and Saint Joseph Island (Île Saint-Joseph after the patron saint of the settlers’ expedition) for the Reclusion, i.e., punishment in solitary confinement. The prison was notorious for the harsh treatment of detainees; the death rate reached 75% at one point. The prison was ultimately closed in 1953.

French Guiana (Guyane) is an overseas region of France. It is thus part of the European Union and uses the euro as its currency. Cayenne is the capital.

French merchants opened a trading center on the Guiana coast in 1624 but were thwarted by raids from the Portuguese (who were given this part of the New World by the Pope in 1494). France managed to establish a substantial presence in 1643 with the founding of La Ravardière (renamed Cayenne in 1777 likely because it sits at the mouth of the Cayenne River) but ultimately could not resist attacks from the native peoples. Enslaved Africans were imported to labor on large plantations growing sugar and other products. Slavery was first abolished in the 1790s during the French Revolution (a time when political opponents could find themselves deported to French Guiana) but became re-established in response to economic pressures as control shifted between the French, Dutch, English, and Portuguese Brazilians. France has maintained possession since 1817. The French government again abolished slavery throughout its territories on 27 April 1848 but the news did not arrive in French Guiana until 10 June (the date of the Abolition Day public holiday observed here since 2012). Without slave labor, the plantations collapsed. French Guiana became a penal colony with a network of camps and penitentiaries along the coast. Napoleon III decreed in 1852 that sentences greater than seven years were to be served in Guiana. In 1885 repeat offenders of minor crimes were added. The prisons were phased out in the decade following World War II. In 1965 President Charles de Gaulle established the Guiana Space Centre which today works with the European Space Agency as well as Arianespace for commercial rocket launches.

On Google Earth: Devil’s Island (Île du Diable) 5°17'37.00"N, 52°34'59.00"W Royal Island (Île Royale) 5°17'14.95"N, 52°35'26.85"W