See Also: Devils Island(encyclopedia)
Little Devils(recipes)
Red Devils, the(dictionary)
Devils on horseback(recipes)
DEVILS SLIDE Credit Union(finance)
Devils Tower National Monument(encyclopedia)
The Island(finance)
off-island(dictionary)
island(encyclopedia)
island arc(encyclopedia)

Devils Island (sh)




French ?le du Diable

Rocky islet off the Atlantic coast of French Guiana.

The smallest of the three ?les du Salut, it is a narrow strip of land 3,900 ft (1,200 m) long and 1,320 ft (400 m) wide. Part of a penal settlement since 1852, it housed the convicts' leper colony until the islands were made a maximum-security area. It shared the notoriety for cruelty of the mainland French Guiana penal colony. Spies and political prisoners, including Alfred Dreyfus, were held there. The island's use as a penal colony was phased out by the early 1950s.