Christopher's
ST. (commonly called St. Kitt's), a British island in the West Indies, one of the Leeward Islands, 23 miles in length, and in general about 5 in breadth breadth; area, 68 square miles. The principal cipal products are sugar, cotton, and rum. The interior consists of many rugged precipices and barren mountains. Of these the loftiest is Mount Misery (evidently an extinguished volcano), 4,100 feet high. The chief town, a seaport with open roadstead, is Basse-Terre (pop. about 8,500). The island has a legislature of its own, with an executive subordinate to the governor of the Leeward Islands, resident in Antigua. It was discovered by Columbus in 1493 and colonized by the English in 1623. Pop. about 30,000.