less than 3000, and only yams and sweet potatoes
figure in the statistics of its exports.
S t. Christopher, or St. K i t t ’s, as the English are
fond of calling it, has a great deal of history in proportion
to its size. I t extends from north-west to
south-east in the form of a rude oval, about thirteen
miles long by six w id e ; but a narrow handle, like
that of a spoon, stretches ten or twelve miles farther,
ending with a circular head having a lagoon in the
middle like a crest or monogram. The entire area is
given as sixty-five square miles. Whether Columbus
was so delighted with its aspect when he first came
upon it that he favoured it with the name of his
own special saint, or bestowed that appellation on
account of the fancied appearance of a big mountain
carrying a little one on its back, does not greatly
matter. T h e Caribs, who had the best right to
name it, called it Liamuiga, meaning “ fertile,”
which exhibits a sounder principle in christening.
T h e Spaniards found it expedient not to disturb
the Caribs, but when the English and French came
with colonising intent, St. Christopher was the first
spot upon which they settled, and they quarrelled
over it for the best part of two centuries. Sir
Thomas Warner and his associates landed on the
verdant isle overlooked by its grim mountain top in
1623, and were in so much peril when the piratical
Esnambuc arrived some months later, with his ships
disabled in a tussle with a Spanish galleon, that they
welcomed French co-operation in wresting the land
from the natives. It required some desperate fighting,
but they were all killed or driven out, and the
English took the uplands in the middle, while the
French occupied both ends by the sea. I t is said
that they established an indisputable boundary by
means of a cactus hedge.
T hey did not dwell long in peace. In 1629, along
came Don Frederic de Toledo, a Spanish admiral,—
all Spanish naval officers of consequence then, as
now, were admirals,— and scattered them, some to
betake themselves to the buccaneers of Tortuga,
and some to return when the Spaniard left the island
again unoccupied. French and English resumed
their relations until their mother countries were at
war, and then the English, under Governor Watts
and Colonel Morgan, in 1666, with the help of some
settlers in Nevis, undertook to drive the French out.
General de la Salle came to the rescue of the latter,
who turned the tables and drove the English o u t ;
but the peace of Breda in 1667 restored the status
quo. When England and Holland were united
against France, after 1688, there was another fight in
St. K i t t ’s. The French expelled the English in 1689,
and they got back the next year, and again the peace
of Ryswick in 1697 restored the old division; but
that of Utrecht in 1713 gave the whole island to
Great Britain. A fte r that there was more fighting,
and the French got temporary possession in 1782,
St. K i t t ’s being one of the islands rescued by R odney’
s great victory over De Grasse. Since then the
English sway has been undisputed.
The island’s natural aspect and recent condition
are as interesting as its history. T he French called
their two ends Capesterre and Basseterre,— freely