chap, iv.] WEST INDIES. 
SECTION I. 
ST. CHRISTOPHER'S. 
THE island of St. Christopher was called by its 
ancient possessors, the Charaibes Liamuiga, or the 
Fertile island. It was discovered in November 
1493, by Columbus himself, who was so pleased 
with its appearance, that he honoured it with his 
own Christian name. But it was neither planted 
nor possessed by the Spaniards. It was, however, 
.{notwithstanding that the general opinion ascribes 
the honour of seniority to Barbadoes), the eldest of 
all the British territories in the West Indies, and 
in truth, the common mother both of the English 
.and French settlements in the Charaibean islands. 
The fact, as related by an historian,* to whose in¬ 
dustry and knowledge I have been so largely in¬ 
debted in my account of St. Vincent, was this, “In 
the number of those gentlemen who accompanied 
captain Roger North, in a voyage to Surinam, was 
Mr. Thomas Warner, who making an acquaintance 
there with captain Thomas Painton, a very experi¬ 
enced seaman, the latter suggested, how much ea¬ 
sier it would be to fix, and preserve in good order, a 
* J)r. John Campbell, 
