Word: lessers
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...backwater Bali Hais are to be found in the Leeward Islands, which are part of the Lesser Antilles, south and east of Puerto Rico; Dutch-ruled St. Eustatius, better known as Statia, and Saba; French St. Barthelemy, a.k.a. St. Barts; and the British islands of Anguilla, Montserrat and Barbuda. These islands were named but largely ignored by the Spanish because they offered little promise of quick riches; for the most part, they have scant rainfall and thin soil. Thus they were generally spared the excesses of European rivalry that devastated rich plantation colonies like Jamaica, Trinidad, Cuba and Hispaniola. They...
These islands provide more than an escape hatch. They offer a discovery of different cultures. No casinos there, no high-rise hotels. But Lesser can be more. Few of the small Leewards have room for as many as 200 tourists. Few are ever visited by cruise ships. They are politically and socially tranquil, and virtually crime-free. As Belgian-born Bishop Antoine Demets said of Montserrat to TIME'S Georgia Harbison, "Here a family spirit reigns. All the mountains and valleys are of shoulder height...
...real spice of the islands is talk-and very good talk it can be. The lingua franca of the Lesser Antilles is English, though it is not always understood on St. Barts, where the blacks also speak Creole and villagers of Breton and Norman descent converse in varied patois. While Dutch is their official language, few Statians or Sabans ever use it. Many, however, do speak Papiamento, the merry island melange of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, English and African dialects ("Bon tim ni un quenta ta coppé tras mi mucha muhé; bai hombre sushi, i lagele...
...Emerald Isle has one of the few playable golf courses (eleven holes) in the Lesser Antilles. Its beaches are of black volcanic sand; the only white sand beach can be reached by a mountain hike or a charter sail. While the food is more plain than fancy, there is one excellent restaurant, Café le Cabotin. The best show in town is at the Vue Pointe, a 40-room bungalow-cottage complex. The hotel becomes le tout Montserrat on Wednesday nights, when steel bands like the Montserrat Symphony perform...
...called because they are downwind of the prevailing northeasterly trade winds. Though the entire Lesser Antilles chain was known to the Spaniards as the Windward Islands-Islas de Barlovento -the group running from the Virgins to Guadeloupe is now known as the Leewards...