Where St Vincent, seeing snake, protected people, keeping lives secure (8,7)

'where st vincent' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun but the answer is a plural noun.

'snake protected people keeping lives secure' is the wordplay.
'snake' becomes 'wind' (to wind is to snake around).
'protected people' becomes 'wards' (children under someone's care).
'keeping' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'lives' becomes 'is' ('be' can be a synonym of 'live').
'secure' becomes 'land' (I've seen this in another clue).
'is'+'land'='island'
'wards' enclosing 'island' is 'wardislands'.
'wind'+'wardislands'='WINDWARD ISLANDS'

'seeing' is the link.