This brief discussion on French Guiana has two aims: (1) to expose the development of a little-known French civilization; and (2) to attract scholars to the investigation of foreign cultures in a broader vein than has generally been done. Historians and political scientists have provided studies on the political and economic history of French Guiana. But the real drama of the struggle of a people to adjust to the juxtaposition of two cultures has not been adequately surveyed. Indigenous literature as expression of the Guianan concept of life has largely been ignored. It is up to the humanist to complement the historian's and political scientist's facts with broad studies in language and literature, before these elements become hermetic remnants of an extinct civilization. (AM)