MUNDURUCU
In the eighteenth century, French attempts to expand settlement in Guiana face devastating setbacks. The Kourou expedition of 1763 brings thousands of colonists to a region where inadequate shelter, food shortages and disease cause catastrophic losses. The disaster helps establish the colony’s fearful reputation in Europe.
Nearly a century later, in 1852, France establishes a penal colony in Guiana. The system includes mainland camps and prisons on the Îles du Salut, off Kourou. Devil’s Island, one of these islands, becomes especially associated with political prisoners, while the wider system holds convicts sentenced for many kinds of offences.
Disease, forced labour and punishment make life exceptionally harsh. Escape can mean another struggle for survival at sea or in the forest. Some later escape narratives include accounts of murder and cannibalism, but these should not be treated as the experience of every fugitive.
The penal colony’s notoriety reaches a worldwide audience through Papillon, the 1973 film starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Based on Henri Charrière’s disputed autobiographical account, it offers a dramatic version of imprisonment and escape rather than a documentary history.