Qualla: Salvation Islands

Salvation Islands: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Arria Belli, CC BY-SA 3.0. The missionaries called them the Salvation Islands because they fled here to escape plague on the mainland. The name was meant in thanks. For the prisoners France sent to these three rocks a century later, salvation was the last word anyone would have used.

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Image: Arria Belli | CC BY-SA 3.0

Salvation Islands: Three Islands, Three Purposes

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. From the air, the Iles du Salut look unremarkable: three small volcanic islands clustered 11 kilometers off the French Guianan coast, 14 kilometers north of Kourou, a total land area of just 0.62 square kilometers. But each island had a role in the French penal machine. Ile Royal...

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Image: Public domain

Salvation Islands: Captain Dreyfus

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Original uploader was Philipp Weigell at de.wikipedia, CC BY 3.0. The most famous prisoner of Devil's Island was Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer convicted of treason in 1894 on fabricated evidence. From 1895 to 1899 he was held here alone, a political scandal so potent that it split France into camps and drew Emile Zola into writi...

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Image: Original uploader was Philipp Weigell at de.wikipedia | CC BY 3.0

Salvation Islands: Brutality and Survival

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit davric, Public domain. Between 1852 and 1953, the penal colony of which these islands were the best-known part claimed thousands of lives. Tropical diseases - malaria, yellow fever, dysentery - killed men faster than any warden. Prisoner-on-prisoner violence was common. The system was officially design...

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Image: davric | Public domain

Salvation Islands: The Islands Now

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Arria Belli, CC BY-SA 3.0. Since 1979 the Salvation Islands have been protected areas managed by the Conservatoire du littoral. The prison buildings are ruins being slowly swallowed by tropical growth. Coconut palms lean over old walls. A lighthouse still marks the group for ships crossing between Kourou a...

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Image: Arria Belli | CC BY-SA 3.0

Salvation Islands: Above the Surf

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tylda, CC BY-SA 3.0. The climate on Royale Island is tropical savanna, not the wet rainforest of the French Guianan mainland. Average lows sit around 26.9 degrees Celsius in January, with October reaching the yearly highs. May brings the most rain. The highest temperature ever recorded on Royale was ...

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Image: Tylda | CC BY-SA 3.0