Today we went out to a historical site on St. Kitts called Brimstone Hill. The hill is formed out of cooled lava that pushed its way through the underlying rock layers. It's about 800 ft above sea level.
Christopher Columbus discovered the island on his first voyage, and when it was colonized all of the native Kittians were killed. After this Britain and France divided up the island and began to colonize it and bring in slaves. Eventually Britain decided to build a fortress on top of Brimstone Hill, and used the slaves to build it. The stones are made of lava rocks, and they used limestone to make the mortar. Because of that, everything is black with a white mortar. It looks beautiful.
After the British built the fortress, the French decided that they wanted it and tried to overtake it. They came in with around 8,000 men, and there were only about 1,000 British in the fortress. The French surrounded the fortress and cut off all access to food and water, so the British were basically starving to death in there for a month before they surrendered. Later, the British took the fortress back in a similar manner.
Since then, the government at St. Kitts has been working to keep it preserved and to restore it somewhat so that it can be used as a tourist location. There is a historical audio you can purchase to listen to the story of the hill and fortress, and it's really very lovely.
From the top, there is an excellent view of the island and you can also see four other Caribbean islands near by, including St. Martin.
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