The year 1763 was marked by a terrible disaster. Choiseul, the prime minister, having obtained for himself and his cousin Praslin a concession of the country between the Kourou and the Maroni, sent out about 12,000 volunteer colonists, mainly from Alsace and Lorraine. They were landed at the mouth of the Kourou, where no preparation had been made for their reception, and where even water was not to be obtained. Mismanagement was complete; there was (for example) a shop for skates, whereas the necessary tools for tillage were wanting. By 1765 no more than 918 colonists remained alive, and these were a famished fever-stricken band. A long investigation in Paris resulted in the imprisonment of the incompetent leaders of the expedition. Several minor attempts at colonization in Guiana were made in the latter part of the century; but they all seemed to suffer from the same fatal prestige of failure. During the revolution band after band of political prisoners were transported to Guiana. The fate of the royalists, nearly 600 in number, who were exiled on the 18th Fructidor (1797), was especially sad. Landed on the Sinnamary without shelter or food, two-thirds of them perished miserably. In 1800 Victor Hugues was appointed governor, and he managed to put the colony in a better state; but in 1809 his work was brought to a close by the invasion of the Portuguese and British. Though French Guiana was nominally restored to the French in 1814, it was not really surrendered by the Portuguese till 1817. Numerous efforts were now made to establish the colony firmly, although its past misfortunes had prejudiced the public mind in France against it. In 1822 the first steam sugar mills were introduced; in 1824 an agricultural colony (Nouvelle Angouleme) was attempted in the Mana district, which, after failure at first, became comparatively successful. The emancipation of slaves and the consequent dearth of labour almost ruined the development of agricultural resources about the middle of the century, but in 1853 a large body of African immigrants was introduced. The discovery of gold on the Approuague in 1855 caused feverish excitement, and seriously disturbed the economic condition of the country. AUTHORITIES.--A detailed bibliography of French Guiana will be found in Ternaux-Compans, _Notice historique de la Guyane francaise_ (Paris, 1843). Among more recent works, see E. Bassieres, _Notice sur la Guyane_, issued on the occasion of the Paris Exhibition (1900); _Publications de la societe d'etudes pour la colonisation de la Guyane francaise_ (Paris, 1843-1844); H. A. Coudreau, _La France equinoxiale_ (1887), _Dialectes indiens de Guyane_ (1891), _Dix ans de Guyane_ (1892), and _Chez nos Indiens_ (1893), all at Paris; G. Brousseau, _Les Richesses de la Guyane francaise_ (Paris, 1901); L. F. Viala, _Les Trois Guyanes_ (Montpellier, 1893). FOOTNOTES: