3. FRENCH GUIANA, lying between the Atlan tic Ocean, Brazil, and Datch Guiana, has an area of about 32,000 square miles. Besides Cayenne, capital of the colony, and its only port (population, according to the latest census, 13,527), there are 14 communes. Mineral pro ductions are gold (105,600 ounces in 1914), sil ver, marble, phosphates, and iron. Agricultural productions are varied (including sugarcane, cocoa, coffee, rice, indigo, tobacco, maize, and manioc), but laborers are few, and the area under cultivation is small, and the total value of the crops insignificant. The value of exports is less than that of the imports. For example, in 1913, the last normal year before the Eu ropean War, the imports were valued at 10, 775,916 francs and the exports at 10,215,129 francs. Colonial interests are entrusted to a governor and privy council of five members, and one deputy represents the colony in the French Parliament. There is also an assembly called the Council-General, composed of 16 members. Revenue and expenditures for 1914 were each estimated at 3,838,836 francs; but the cost of maintaining the penal establishment is borne by the French republic. Between 150 and 160 French soldiers are kept in the colony. The total population, including convicts and Indians, was given as 32,908 in 1901. It had increased to 50,000, approximately, in 1916. Cayenne has a superior court, court of first instance, and two justices of the peace; a col lege, a library, and a museum; in the entire colony there are 31 primary and seven con gregational schools.
From the first, the French undertaking in Guiana has been unsuccessful. On 11 Dec. 1653, the' survivors of the original colony abandoned the fort and sailed away, after suffering from hunger and disease. A new company formed for the colonization of Cayenne in 1663 was scarcely able to hold its own against hostile neighbors in Brazil. The deportation of politi
cal prisoners to Guiana at the end of the 18th century completed the ruin which Portuguese attacks had begun; for the exiles ascribed the death of their companions to the climate; and French Guiana was completely discredited in the eyes of the world. In January 1809, the colony surrendered to the Portuguese and English. It was restored to France by the treaties of 1814-15. Since 1855 it has been used as a penal settlement. In 1902 the number of convicts in residence there was 10,075, including 240 women. At the beginning of 1915 the number was 8,693. The boundaries with Brazil were determined 1 Dec. 1900, by the Swiss court of arbitration.
Monday: Destruc tive Fire in Georgetown' (Demerara 1914) ; Coudreau, H. A., 'Etudes sur lea Guavanes et (Paris 1886) ; Raleigh, \\ , (An Original Letter of Sir lValter Raleigh [or Rawleigh, according to that signature] Con taining a Full Account of his Tempestuous Voyage to Guiana' (Antiquarian Society of London, Archceologiu, Vol. XVI, p. 188, Lon don 1812), and Newes of Sir Walter Rauleigh, with the True Description of Guiana' (Lon don 1618— repr. Washington 1844) ; Rodway, J., 'Guiana: British, Dutch, and French' (New York 1912); Schomburgk, R. H., (A Descrip tion of British Guiana' (London 1840), 'Reisen in Britlsch-Guiana in den Jahren 1840-44' (Leipzig 1847-48) ; Tripot, J., Guayane' (Parii 1910) ; Van Cappelle, H., Travers des Forets Vierges de la Guyane Hollandaise' (Baarn and Paris 1905); Wijnaendts Francken, C J., 'Door West-Indie: Antillen, Panama, Venezuela, British Guyana, Suriname> (Haar lem 1915).