Saint Kitts and Nevis

The Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis , located in the Leeward Islands, is a federal two-island country in the West Indies. It is the smallest sovereign state in the Americas, in both area and population. The country is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state.

There is some disagreement over the name which Columbus gave to St. Kitts. For many years it was thought that he named the island San Cristobal, after his patron saint Saint Christopher, the saint of travelling. However, new studies suggest that Columbus named the island Sant Yago (Saint James). The name "San Cristobal" was apparently given by Columbus to the island now known as Saba, 20 miles northwest. It seems that "San Cristobal" came to be applied to the island of St. Kitts only as the result of a mapping error.
No matter the origin of the name, the island was well documented as "San Cristobal" by the 17th century. The first English colonists kept the English translation of this name, and dubbed it "St. Christopher's Island."
In the 17th century, a common nickname for Christopher was Kit, or Kitt. This is why the island was often informally referred to as "Saint Kitt's Island," further shortened to "Saint Kitts."

Another beautiful card from the Caribbean, the 150th in my collection!

At first I thought the stamp must have been stolen, but it probably fell off

hence the imcomplete postmark. Thank you Tom for this great card!

Sent: 21 November 2014   Received: 15 December 2014   Travelled: 24 days