A thorough search of the links for history of the Caymans turned up no mention of any activity prior to Columbus sighting the islands in 1503. Finally Cayman.com.ky explained the mystery. "With no archeological evidence that Amerindians ever inhabited the Cayman Islands, it is believed that the first people to actually land here were sailors from Sir Francis Drake's 1585-6 expedition to the West Indies."
But back to Columbus. Apparently he was off course when he sighted the islands, naming them "Las Tortugas" for the large number of turtles swimming nearby. By 1530 the islands were known as the Caymanus, a name that may have derived from confusion between the iguana, which is found on the islands, and the alligator ("cayman" in Spanish).
Although the Cayman Islands celebrated their 500th birthday "its Quincentennial Year" in 2003, marking the first sighting of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman by Columbus, it was only about three hundred years ago that people began to settle permanently on these islands.
Ships of various nations stopped at the Caymans to get food, mainly turtles. The islands sheltered pirates who attacked Spanish ships from Cuba and the Dominican Republic (then Hispaniola). The islands are surrounded by treacherous fringing reefs with large salt water crocodiles - the Caimans, from which the islands are named, and did not offer the safer havens of other islands. The earliest European settlers, who came about 1700, were a mixture of buccaneers, shipwrecked sailors, and debtors. They brought with them slavery, which lasted until emancipation in 1835.
From WorkMall.com, "Spain held early control over the Caymans, but the islands were ceded by Spain to the English crown in 1670 under the terms of the Treaty of Madrid. The first English settlement took place in 1734 after the first land grant. After 1734 most of the colonists came from Jamaica, and the Caymans became a dependency of Jamaica. The islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman were settled in 1833 by several families from Grand Cayman, but no administrative connection existed until a justice of the peace arrived on Cayman Brac in 1877." Mahogany became a mainstay of the economy, highly prized in Europe for the furniture industry.
The Cayman Islanders became well known as expert mariners and boat builders. As the populations of turtles began to dwindle, the bigger ships crafted by the locals carried small boats and their two- or three-man crews to new turtling grounds.
Tune in next Monday to read the next post on the history of the Cayman Islands.
Many thanks to Cayman.com.ky for help with the post.
Although the Cayman Islands celebrated their 500th birthday "its Quincentennial Year" in 2003, marking the first sighting of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman by Columbus, it was only about three hundred years ago that people began to settle permanently on these islands.
Ships of various nations stopped at the Caymans to get food, mainly turtles. The islands sheltered pirates who attacked Spanish ships from Cuba and the Dominican Republic (then Hispaniola). The islands are surrounded by treacherous fringing reefs with large salt water crocodiles - the Caimans, from which the islands are named, and did not offer the safer havens of other islands. The earliest European settlers, who came about 1700, were a mixture of buccaneers, shipwrecked sailors, and debtors. They brought with them slavery, which lasted until emancipation in 1835.
From WorkMall.com, "Spain held early control over the Caymans, but the islands were ceded by Spain to the English crown in 1670 under the terms of the Treaty of Madrid. The first English settlement took place in 1734 after the first land grant. After 1734 most of the colonists came from Jamaica, and the Caymans became a dependency of Jamaica. The islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman were settled in 1833 by several families from Grand Cayman, but no administrative connection existed until a justice of the peace arrived on Cayman Brac in 1877." Mahogany became a mainstay of the economy, highly prized in Europe for the furniture industry.
The Cayman Islanders became well known as expert mariners and boat builders. As the populations of turtles began to dwindle, the bigger ships crafted by the locals carried small boats and their two- or three-man crews to new turtling grounds.
Tune in next Monday to read the next post on the history of the Cayman Islands.
Many thanks to Cayman.com.ky for help with the post.