ST. VINCENT, one of the British Windward islands in the West Indies, lying about 13° 15' N., 61° 10' W., west of Barbados and south of St. Lucia. It is about 18 m. long by 11 in extreme width, and has an area of 150 sq.m. Beautifully wooded volcanic hills form the backbone of the island and have picturesque valleys. The highest summit is the volcano called the Soufriere (3,500 ft.) in the north, the disastrous eruption of which in May 1902 devastated the most fertile portion of the island, a gently sloping tract lying to the north, called the Carib Country. The climate of St. Vincent is fairly healthy and in winter very pleasant; the aver age annual rainfall exceeds 1 oo in., and the temperature ranges from 88° F in Aug. to 66° in Dec. and January. The capi tal of the island is Kingstown, beautifully situated on the south west coast near the foot of Mount St. Andrew.
The population of the island in 1931 was 47,961; there are still a few Caribs of mixed blood, most of the aboriginal Caribs having been deported to British Honduras in 1797. Kingstown has a pop ulation of about 4,27o. The present constitution dates from 1877, when the legislative council, consisting of four official and four nominated unofficial members, was formed. The principal prod ucts of the island are arrowroot, cassava starch, molasses, cotton, cacao, coconuts and copra, ground nuts and spices. The average annual value of exports from 1896 to 1906 was £63,157, in the value was 1150,862. In 1899 a scheme was begun, with a grant of L 15,0m from the Imperial treasury, for settling the la bouring population, distressed by the failure of the sugar estate industry, as peasant proprietors.
St. Vincent is generally stated to have been discovered on St. Vincent's day, the 22nd of January 1498 by Columbus. Its Carib
inhabitants remained undisturbed for many years. In 1627 Charles I. granted the island to the earl of Carlisle; in 1672 it was re-granted to Lord Willoughby, having been previously (166o) declared neutral. In 1722 a further grant of the island was made, to the duke of Montague, and then the first serious effort at coloni zation was checked by French insistence on neutrality confirmed by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). In 1762 General Monck ton occupied the island; the treaty of Paris in 1763 confirmed the British possession, and settlement proceeded in spite of the re fusal of the Caribs to admit British sovereignty. After some fight ing in 1773 a treaty was concluded with them, when they were granted lands in the north of the island as a reserve. In 1779 the island was surrendered to the French, but it was restored to Britain by the treaty of Versailles (1783). In 1795 the Caribs rose, assisted by the French, and were only subdued by Sir Ralph Abercromby in 1796, after which the majority of them were de ported. The emancipation of negro slaves in the island took place in 1838; in 1846 Portuguese labourers were introduced, and in 1861 East Indian coolies. St. Vincent suffered from a violent hurricane in 1780, and the Soufriere was in eruption in 1821. Severe distress was occasioned by the hurricane of the II th of September, 1898, from which the island had not recovered when it was visited by the eruption of the Soufriere in May 1902. This eruption was synchronous with that of Mont Pele in Martinique (q.v.). There were earthquakes in the following July, and further eruptions on Sept. 3 and Oct. 15, and on March 22, 1903.