La Désirade is an island in the French West Indies, in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean. It forms part of Guadeloupe, an overseas region of France. History Archaeological evidence has been discovered that suggests that an Amerindian population lived on La Désirade from the 3rd to the 16th centuries. Spanish colonization Deseada was the first island sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1493. When he landed there during his second voyage to America, he took possession of the island on behalf of the Spanish crown, followed by the island of Marie-Galante. Like other Antillean islands, it served as a hideout for pirates or corsairs who attacked Spanish overseas possessions. Some sources indicate that the island owes its name to the relief of the members of Columbus crew who saw the first dry land since leaving the Canary Islands of Spain. They cried out: "Oh, desired island" The French name La Désirade is an adaptation of its historical name in Spanish (La Deseada). French colonization La Désirade first belonged to the island of Dominica and then became a dependency of Guadeloupe in 1648, when some cotton plantations were installed. It also served as a hideout for pirates attacking Spanish overseas territories. Les Galets was a place of exile for the criminals of Grand-Terre and for some nobles of the metropolis. There is a legend of an international adventurer Tybalt Rosembraise born in 1798 in the penal colony to a French dissident and a Carib slave woman. The island of Desirade has had a reputation as a home base for liquor smugglers. In the 18th century, a leper hospital was founded in Baie-Mahault, at the eastern end of the island. The patients suffered difficult living conditions, and this center finally closed its doors in 1952. On the few square meters of the "Place du Maire mendiant", named in memory of Joseph Daney de Marcillac, remembered for ''tirelessly'' touring Guadeloupe to finance the reconstruction of the island after the great cyclone of 1928, stands the church of Notre-Dame du bon secours, flanked by its bell tower and a massive pear tree high altar, the small town hall, the bust of the heroic Victor Schœlcher, the cannons and a monument to the dead in tribute to the deceased former sailors, which recalls the primordial place of fishing in the island's economy. Every year, on August 16, a fishermen's festival is celebrated with a procession.