Kingstown (pop. 12,712) is the capital and largest city of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It lies along a bay on the southeast coast of St. Vincent Island. Kingstown’s harbor serves the import and export trade that is the basis of the city’s economy. Fort Charlotte, a former British fort, overlooks the city. The Botanic Garden, the oldest such garden in the Americas, dates to 1765. It contains a breadfruit tree grown from the original plant brought from Tahiti by the British sea captain William Bligh (see Bligh, William ).
Carib Indians lived in the Kingstown area, probably as early as the 1300’s. English and French settlers began to arrive there in the 1600’s. Britain governed St. Vincent Island from 1783 to 1979, when the independent country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines was formed.
