Îlet à Cabrit (), officially French: îlet à Cabrit des Saintes (literally: ''Goat Island of Les Saintes''), is an island in the
ÃŽles des Saintes
The Îles des Saintes (; ), also known as Les Saintes (, ), is a group of small islands in the archipelago of Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. It is part of the Canton of Trois-Rivières and is divided into two communes: Terre- ...
,
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...
, the
Lesser Antilles
The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean, Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc w ...
. It belongs to the
commune of
Terre-de-Haut
Terre-de-Haut (; ) is a commune in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe, including Terre-de-Haut Island and a few other small uninhabited islands of the archipelago (''les Roches Percées''; '' Îlet à Cabrit''; '' Grand-Îlet''; ''la Red ...
.
Geography
ÃŽlet to Cabrit is located, at at the northwest of
Terre-de-Haut Island
Terre-de-Haut Island (; ; also formerly known as ''Petite Martinique'') is the easternmost island in the ÃŽles des Saintes, part of the archipelago of Guadeloupe. Like name of neighboring Terre-de-Bas Island, name Terre-de-Haut comes from the m ...
, closing partially the Les Saintes Bay.
The island is approximately from east to west and from north to south. Its highest mount up to , Morne Joséphine hill. it contains three headlands, ''Pointe à Cabrit'' on the West, ''Pointe Sable'' in the South and ''Pointe Bombarde'' in the East, which frame three coves: ''Anse sous le vent'' in the southwest, ''Anse du Bananier'' in the southeast and ''Anse du Petit Etang'' in the North.
By its localization, Îlet à Cabrit creates two passages into the Bay of les Saintes, ''la Baleine'' passage to the East and ''Pain de Sucre'' passage in the South, which constitute both access roads to the harbours of
Mouillage and
Fond-du-Curé.
History
The strategic position of ''Petite Martinique'' (former name of Îlet à Cabrit) always served of sentinel's place. In 1777, France built, at the top of ''Morne de la Reine'' hill (Former name of ''Morne Josephine'' hill), a fortification named ''Fort de la Reine'' renamed later ''Fort Joséphine''. It formed then a defensive system with the ''
Fort Napoléon'' and the numerous battery of the archipelago.
The British, who occupied ''les Saintes'' in 1809, kept ''Fort Joséphine'' and added water butt to it. After the return of les Saintes under French dominion, ''Fort Joséphine'' became a penitentiary from 1851, but it was ravaged by a hurricane, on September 6, 1865. It continued however to welcome convicts on the way towards
ÃŽles du Salut
The Salvation Islands ( French: ''ÃŽles du Salut'', so called because the missionaries went there to escape plague on the mainland), sometimes mistakenly called the Safety Islands, are a group of small islands of volcanic origin about off the co ...
, in
French Guiana
French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...
until 1902.
In 1871, Îlet à Cabrit became a place of quarantine: a
lazaretto
A lazaretto ( ), sometimes lazaret or lazarette ( ), is a quarantine station for maritime travelers. Lazarets can be ships permanently at anchor, isolated islands, or mainland buildings. In some lazarets, postal items were also disinfected, usu ...
, was opened instead of the penitentiary.
Notes and references
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilet a Cabrit
Uninhabited islands of ÃŽles des Saintes