This relatively steep and hilly island is
just 3M NW from West End, Tortola. Its
name comes from a Dutch pirate, and
from the end of the 16th to the early 17th
century Dutch planters were the main
inhabitants. Then it was settled by the
English, amongst them a Quaker
community.

It was from that stock that,
for English speakers interested in
history’s by-ways, John Coakley Lettsom
(often misspelled Lettsome) was born on
Little Jost Van Dyke in 1744. He was
educated in England and made a fortune as a London doctor earning up to
£12,000 a year; in modern money that’s
several million! He was a noted
philanthropis – some say he founded the
British or London Medical Society,
though Roy Porter’s magisterial The
Greatest Benefit to Mankind makes no
mention of it. In his day he was at least
as well known as a social climber,
caricatured by contemporaries as ‘Dr
Wriggle’.
History then took a back step here
until the years of prohibition in America,
when the island had a reputation as a
smugglers’ haven.

Today there are fewer than 200
inhabitants, though every one of them is
fiercely proud of their island. However,
that has been no impediment to tourism
becoming the main money earner. Each
day dozens of yachts, boats and day
charters offload tourists who pack every
bar and restaurant around until late.
Given the intense traffic, you can clear
into the BVI in Great Harbour where
there’s an immigration post.
Other than the little villages and the
odd isolated house, Jost Van Dyke is
pretty undeveloped and the road system
comes down to a short, narrow road and
a few tracks and paths. An E to W walk
allows you to ramble over the hilltops
and look at the wonderful, panoramic
views over the whole of Jost Van Dyke
and its neighbours.