I am on a launch heading across the muddy coastal waters from the mainland of French Guiana on South America‘s northeastern coast to the les du Salut, the Islands of Salvation. These three palm­clad rocky isles, together with parts of the mainland, were once the dreaded French penal colony known collectively as Devil‘s Island. Now the main island comes complete with a resort hotel, a bar and restaurant and a resident gendarme.

Large red and green buoys mark the safe channel out to the islands, and as we draw near, the murky brown water suddenly turns a greenish­blue. About 12 kilometres from the mainland we have left the coastal current of silt­laden fresh water from the Amazon River and are now in the saline Atlantic Ocean. As we tie up to the wharf on le Royale, I can see the small island of le Saint­Joseph across the channel to the right, which was once used to house long­term solitary confinement convicts.

Political prisoners, hardened thieves and murderers were shipped by France to the Devil‘s Island penal colony from 1884 to 1938, and the island prison eventually stopped operating in 1952. Of the more than 50,000 prisoners sent to the diseaseinfested island, most were never seen again. The unforgiving climate, tropical diseases and the brutality of the guards killed many more prisoners than those who survived. Very few convicts managed to escape, giving the island a reputation that it was a harrowing place from which there was no return.

After we land on the island, a pleasant pathway leads us along the waterfront and up a slope to the former home of the director of the colony. The house was built in 1886 and subsequently restored in 1994. Visitors from mainland France who have come to explore this harsh chapter of their history speak quietly, as if in awe of what they are seeing.

From the well­kept gardens of the home we file uphill along a narrow track to the top of the island. The semaphore hut, from which communications were made to the other two islands, stands at the summit. On the wall a small plaque reads: A Guillaume Seznec ­ Martyr innocent. Seznec was wrongly convicted of murdering a friend, and from 1927 he spent 20 years on the island before being given a presidential pardon for good behaviour. He died in 1954, not knowing that 51 years later his case would be reopened by the French Government to formally consider overturning the original verdict.

By the time convicts arrived on the island, many would have already spent months and often years on the mainland, clearing forests in mosquito­infested swamps and trying to survive on a minimal diet. Any troublemakers were automatically transferred to the island, along with the toughest criminals.

At the top of the island there is a broad plateau, dominated by the one­time two­storied administration building, now the resort hotel Lauberge des les du Salut. For 鈧¬83 a night, visitors can sleep in an airconditioned former guardhouse or, for much less, choose a hammock or a dormitory bed.

Meals and drinks are available from the hotel bar and restaurant, but be warned, they are not cheap. There is also a small store selling a jumble of souvenirs and tacky crafts. The restaurant is elevated over the edge of the plateau with a pleasant view across to the smallest island in the group, le du Diable, Devil‘s Island.

It was here that the Jewish French army captain Alfred Dreyfuss, who had been wrongfully convicted of treason and espionage, was transported in 1895 to spend his life on the palm­clad rock. Dreyfuss, like other prisoners, had ankle irons clamped on every night and was forced to maintain absolute silence. Food was sent to the tiny island across an aerial cable. In 1899 Dreyfuss was pardoned, but it took until 1906 for him to be exonerated of the charges and readmitted into the army. Across on le Saint­Joseph, prisoners would be taken for solitary detention in what was known as le bagne des bagnes, or the prison within the prison. Confinement could range from a few months to five years, in dungeons of two square metres. No sunlight ever enteredthe cells, which were dug into the ground. Dysentery, lack of food and diseases often took the weakest to their death.

Walking on past the hotel, we arrive at the island‘s reservoir. A large sign on the gate that leads down the ramp into the murky water reads: Attention: caimans. Acknowledging the sign, we walk on to a gap in the trees to where the French flag flutters clumsily in the erratic breeze across a grassy field.

Once the Habitation du Medicin Chef, the building was restored in 1996, and is now home to the island‘s gendarmerie, or at least, its lone resident officer.

Beyond the police station, a small wooden church, with its doors locked, is currently being restored. The chapel sits a stone‘s throw from the huge two­storied brick military hospital, its roof now gutted and its inner walls crumbling. Palm trees rustle above its shady approach, while rusted steel bars litter the gaping windows.

Across from the hospital shell is a more recent addition, as a helicopter landing pad is marked out in the shadow of the cellblocks. Through a gap in the corral of cells, I walked into the exercise yard, which is dominated by a huge tree that spreads its leafy branches between the buildings. There are barred windows in every direction.

Beyond the hospital, a track leads down through a grove of trees to the Cimetiere des Enfants, the cemetery for the children of the officers and guards. Just as with the inmates, tropical diseases knew no bounds. Among the headstones is that of Emilien Cigrand, aged two years and seven months, who died on January 18, 1915. The simple inscription reads, Regrets.

The convicts had no headstones and no inscriptions. Their dead bodies became shark fodder. Just like performing seals at a modern aquarium, the sharks were summoned to the feeding frenzy by the ringing of a bell as bodies were despatched into the sea. The sharksconstant presence around the islands provided a major deterrent for any wouldbe escapers. Even if the prisoners reached the mainland, the piranha­infested rivers, vociferous army ants and cannibalisation by fellow escapees ensured that few survived. Henri Charriere was one of the few who successfully escaped Devil‘s Island. Better known as Papillon, for the tattoo of a butterfly on his chest, he was wrongly convicted of murder in 1931. He spent 12 years of a life sentence in the penal colony before he finally escaped to Venezuela by floating on two coconut­filled flour sacks. His story is related in the book Papillon, later made into a movie starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. In the late afternoon we battle increasing wind to walk the coastal track that circumnavigates the island. Near the old storeroom on the shore, now a hostel for backpackers, the prisoners had been permitted to build a breakwater to form a seawater pool where once a week they were allowed to bathe. With the waves crashing over the breakwater, I jumped into the poolfor a swim, only to emerge minutes later, shivering from the cold Atlantic waters. Where once transport ships brought thousands of miserable prisoners to the desolate coast, cruise ships and excursion launches now disgorge about 50,000 cameratoting visitors who come to the 脦les de Salut each year to experience one of the world‘s most notorious prisons.

During our visit, a helicopter crew and the gendarme were needed in an attempt to revive a visitor who was swept off the rocks and pulled out into the current. Sadly he was lost, just as the thousands before him who came to these islands.

It was a bleak reminder of the dangerous waters that surround the les du Salut. Toward evening, as the weather closed in, the sky blackened and the sea became troubled, we left the island with its morbid history and reflected on the sad loss of one of our party. Even long after the notorious days of the penal colony, it seems that Devil‘s Island can still claim another victim.

FACT FILE

Guiana is a department of France, so flights from Paris to Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana, are regarded as domestic. There are also direct flights from the French Caribbean Islands and from North America. Smaller regional airlines fly from Suriname and Brazil. Day excursions to the les de Salut can be easily arranged from hotels in Cayenne, or arrange a trip from the port in Kourou. There is a range of hotels available in Cayenne, or stay on le Royale at Lauberge des Iles du Salut. Cayenne has many French restaurants, and there is also Asian and African cuisine. On le Royale, eat at the hotel restaurant or take a picnic lunch. Kourou is home to the French Space Agency and two other European agencies. There are several rocket launches a year, with free tours of the space centre during the week. Cayenne‘s colourful Carnival is held in February.