Cayenne, a fortified seaport, capital of French Guiana, on an island at the mouth of a river of the same name. A new town is connected with the older portion by the Place d'Armes, bordered with orange-trees. The harbour is the best on the coast, but insecure and shallow. Cayenne, though it is the entrepôt of all the trade of the colony, is chiefly known as a great French penal settlement (since 1852). The climate is extremely unwholesome for
Europeans, large numbers of the convicts having been carried off by various malignant fevers. The French took possession of the island in 1604, and again, after it had been held by the English and Dutch, in 1677. The name of the capital is sometimes used for the whole of French Guiana (q.v.). Pop. about 10,000.