Cayenne

Cayenne, city, port, and capital of French Guiana, in northern French Guiana, on Cayenne Island at the mouth of the Cayenne River. The leading port of French Guiana, it has a steamboat service to other coastal points and is included in the itinerary of an air-transport system. The harbour is shallow, and large ships have to anchor some distance out. The chief exports include bananas, gold, rum, hides, spices, fish glue, and timber. Among its imports are grain, flour, wine, clothing, glass, hardware, cotton and silk goods, and tobacco. The first French settlement at Cayenne was established early in the 17th century. It was occupied by the Dutch from 1654 to 1664, when the French re-established control. Following another period of Dutch occupation, beginning in 1667, the French acquired permanent control of the town early in the 18th century. A French penal colony was established in Cayenne in the 1850s. In 1946 the French government finally abandoned the practice of transporting prisoners to the colony. Devil's Island, another notorious former French penal colony, is nearby. Population (1990) 41,667.