Salvation Islands

Antoine's view

"They have put hell in paradise", wrote the journalist Albert London... One can hardly imagine the suffering which the convicts -banished-, to the prisons of Cayenne, Saint Laurent of Maroni, and for the worst cases, the islands of Salut...

These islands who poorly carry their name were chosen by missionaries, who had found refuge there to escape the mosquitos carrying the Guianese jungle fever.
With no means of escaping from Royal island, Joseph Saint nor of Devil's Island: if 'Papillon' really managed to flee, he was extremely fortunate!
The strong current, murky shark infested waters, the watch full eye of the prison guards... rare were those who left the islands of Salut alive...

And rare are today the sailors who do not succumb to the charm of these islands, the only offshore anchorage between the Amazon and Orénoque;I made a stopover three times in twenty years in this true corner of Paradise: three covered islands of a rich vegetation where the roots reclaim year after year, the trace of prison cells, cemeteries and labour camps.
A path leads up to the islands summit : I once arrived in the bay by night and I climbed the summit without waiting for daytime... in the total darkness, I had the impression I was surrounded by the convicts ghosts!

Now a days handfuls of visitors unload each day from the boat which brings them from Kourou: it is a weekend destination for the employees of the Space center; fewer still are those who spend the night in the old hospital or one of the renovated cells; me, on my boat, with the anchor under the wind of Devil's Island, where Dreyfus lived, far from civilisation, I have only to enjoy the incredible beauty of these islands, the large coconuts, inhabited agoutis, small monkeys, and especially, the dark memory when on Devil's Island, the hell was in the Paradise.