Historical Notes St Vincent and the Grenadines

St Vincent (from G.J Chester’s Transatlantic Sketches in the West Indies,

South America, Canada and the United States,… 1869)

“In four hours after leaving the Pitons, we had crossed the strait, and were steaming along the leeward coast of St Vincent, under the noble forms of the Souffriere, Grand Bonhomme and other volcanic peaks of the great central chain of Morne Garou. At length rounding the lofty headland, which is crowned by Fort Charlotte, we found ourselves in the Bay of Kingstown, the capital town, and I was able to go ashore.{{more}}

Kingstown consists mainly of two parallel streets, and a kind of esplanade, which faces the sea, and boasts of a little wooden jetty. To the right is the headland already mentioned, beautifully wooded, and crowned by the fort and barracks; to the left, Sion Hill, another green headland of almost equal height, and beyond the varied outline of the Island of Bequia, the nearest of the Grenadines. Behind, green canefields and provision grounds, dotted with estate houses, labourers’ dwellings, and fine trees, extend upwards to a semicircle of mountains, of which the highest is known as Mount St Andrew’s. Like all the other mountains of St Vincent except the Souffriere, these are clothed to the summit with dense forests. In the midst of Kingstown is a market -place, shaded by fine bread-fruit and mango trees, and overlooked by the court-house and seat of the Legislature. A little further on is the parish church, which resembles a tea-chest with a pepper-pot attached, and opposite the church an enormous Methodist meeting-house, also like a tea-chest, but without a pepper-pot. The seats in the church are annually put up to auction, ‘according to law’, in the court-house, and sold to the highest bidders! This disgraceful transaction used to take place in the church itself.

About a quarter of a mile from the town are the remains of a fine botanical garden. This is now a mere wilderness of magnificent nutmeg, clove, and other choice trees, for the grant by which it was supported has been withdrawn, and the garden itself abandoned to ruin. The town contains between 5,000 and 6,000 inhabitants, amongst whom are a considerable number of immigrants from Madeira. There is no bookshop, but two newspapers are published every week. I noticed a couple of schooners in course of building under some silk-cotton trees upon the beach and the bay is enlivened by a constant succession of droghers and other small craft, from the windward coast and the nearest of the Grenadines.

The first and last distinguishing quality of the inhabitants, as compared with the Bims, which struck me, was their unbounded hospitality. During the whole of my stay in the island I was continually accepting or refusing invitations, being provided with riding-horses and being passed on from one hospitable house to another. The clergy are a completely different race of beings to those of Barbados. The low, slow and dry varieties which prevail in Barbados are replaced by high Churchmen of extraordinary diligence and devotion to their sacred calling. Daily services, and often two daily services, with three and even four, on Sundays, are the rule in St Vincent, while visitation of the sick and poor is carried on over miles and miles of wild mountains and coast-land. Yet the clergy are few in number, poorly paid, obstructed by the local Government, bullied by the Methodists, and seldom cheered by the visit of a Bishop.”