THE CARIBBEAN SAINT LUCIA

The first inhabitants of the island now called Saint Lucia were Arawak who lived there for hundreds of years before the Caribs came in the 800s and pushed them out. No Europeans settled until the 1550s when a feared pirate known as Wooden Leg used it as a base from which to attach Spanish ships. The Dutch came next, then the British, then the French.

For 150 years the British and French fought over the island; it changed hands between them fourteen times before the British finally pushed the French out in 1814. All the while independence-seekers of African and sometimes of mixed African-Arawak-Carib heritage fought the colonizers from the forests and rural areas. Today Saint Lucia's official language is English but most Saint Lucians speak French-based patois. Saint Lucians love cricket, but they are equally as enthusiastic about calypso, reggae and Afro-Caribbean foods and festivals. The island became an independent nation in 1979 but is still part of the British Commonwealth.