Saint Lucia, “the Helen of the West Indies” is one of the four islands which form part of the Windward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, which are in turn part of the West Indies. It is 24 miles north of Saint Vincent, 21 miles south of its nearest neighbor, Martinique and 100 miles northwest of Barbados. It was once believed that Christopher Columbus, on his fourth voyage to the West Indies in 1502 was the first European to set foot on Saint Lucia. However, one theory suggests that Juan de la Cosa, a little-known explorer who traveled with Columbus on his first and second voyages, named the island. Saint Lucia won its independence from Great Britain on February 22, 1979, but is a member of the British Commonwealth.