CHRISTOPHER'S, ST, or ST KITT'S, is one of the Leeward West India islands, and was called Lienzuiga, or the Fertile Island, by the Charaibes, by whom it was possessed when discovered by Columbus in 14.93, who gave it his own Christian name.
St Christopher's is divided into nine parishes, and con tains four towns and villages, viz. the capital Basseterre, which contains above 800 houses, Sandy Point, Old Road, and Deep Bay. The principal fortifications are Fort Charles and Brimstonhill, three batteries at Basse terre, one at Figtreebay, and a fourth at Palmeto Point.
The island is about forty-two miles in circumference, and its superficial extent is about 43,726 acres. The interior part of the island consists of naked precipices and barren mountains, the highest of which is Mount Misery, which is about 3711 feet high, and appears to have been formerly a volcano. The plains, which are ex tremely fertile, are appropriated to the growth of sugar, and to pasturage, about 17,000 acres being devoted to the former, and 4000 to the latter. Provisions and a little cotton are the only other articles of produce. The average quantity of sugar produced annually is about 16,000 hogsheads, of 16 cwt. ; and as only one half of the cane land is annually cut, the produce of each acre is about two hogsheads of 1 6 cwt.—a return which is
supposed to exceed that of any other sugar country in the world. The soil of the island is a light and porous dark grey loam, lying above a stratum of gravel, about ten inches deep. From 3000 to 4000 barrels arum are annually made in the island.
Among the mountains in the centre of St Christopher's, there is one which contains mines of sulphur, and there is another not far distant from Fort Charles, in which there is said to be a mine of silver. In the south-cast part of the island there are very fine salt ponds, which produce Most excellent salt : One of these is more than a hundred acres in extent, and is surrounded with several lesser ponds, and with a number of small hills.
The following Table contains an accurate statement of the articles imported into St Christopher's in the years 1804, 1805, 1806.
The population of St Christopher's, in 1637, amounted to about 13,000. It contains at present about 20,000 blacks and S000 whites. West Long. 63' 17', North Lat. 17° 15'. See Edward's Hist. of the 11"est Indies. and Gray's Letter from Canada. Sec also the article WEST IN D I ES. (TO