Bequia

Common card · No. 275327

Bequia ( BEK-wee or BEK-way) is the second-largest island in the Grenadines at 7 square miles (18 km2). It is part of the country of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and lies approximately 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from the nation's capital, Kingstown, on the main island, Saint Vincent. The name Bequia is said to derive from the Carib word becouya, meaning "island of the clouds". The island's early inhabitants were the Kalinago (Caribs), who lived throughout the Grenadines before the arrival of Europeans. In the eighteenth century, Bequia was colonised by European powers, first claimed and settled by the French, who established small plantations producing indigo, cotton, and sugar worked by enslaved Africans. Following the Treaty of Paris (1763), France ceded Bequia and the neighbouring islands to Britain, which continued the plantation system and maintained colonial rule until independence in 1979 as part of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Bequia also has a history of whaling, introduced...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Rémih, Public domain