The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

FRENCH GUIANA. 67
settled at the foot of the Eemire Uills some distance to the east of the present
town, which was founded at the little fort of Saint-Louis, but did not become the
permanent capital of French Guiana till the year 1877.
Cayenne is comparatively speaking a large place, containing 10,000 inhabi-
tants, or about one third of the whole population of the colony. It is laid out in
the usual American chessboard fashion, with streets at right angles and shady
squares on a peninsular space at the foot of the verdant Ceperou eminence at the
north-west extremity of the island.
The administrative and Government buildings, hotels, barracks, and prisons
occupy a large part of the town, which is encircled by parks and magnificent
avenues of palm-trees. Being well exposed to the Seabreeze, Cayenne would
to 3
Feet.
3to6
Feet.
Fig. 20.
—
Catenx-e.
Scale 1 : 30.000.
Liepths.
6 to 10
Feet.
. 1,100 Yards.
lu 1 eet
and upwards.
naturally enjoy a healthy climate but for the canals in the environs, which often
get choked. A supply of water is brought by conduits from a neighbouring
height fed by the Rorota rivulet. By far the greater part of the population
consists of negroes, chiefly descendants of the freedmen who flocked to the place
after the emancipation of 1848. But all the other races of the colony have their
representatives in Caj-enne. Most of the domestic servants are Creoles from
Martinique ; the booths and stores are chiefly in the hands of Chinese hucksters,
while the fish markets are supplied by natives of Annam. The harbour is
atces.sible to vessels drawing 14 feet, but it is partly exposed, and the shipping
has occasionally been wrecked by high tides occurring in rough weather. A
lighthouse has been erected on the Enfant Perdu, a rock at the northern entrance.
Formerly gardens and plantations abounded in the environs of Cayenne,
i-2