"Grand Cayman, much mor ..." a Grand Cayman Travel Page by sargentjeff

We spent the day in GC as part of our 2005 cruise with Carnival Cruise Lines. GC was hit hard by a hurricane in 2004, but most everything has since been rebuilt. The Senor Frogs was still being fixed, so don't plan a party there for a little while longer. Anyway, we booked a trip at the pier to go swimming with the stingrays (Best Value Watersports) for $35 a person. This was a great deal consideringthe ship charges $75 for the same thing. The trip lasted about 3.5 hours, and included a side trip to snorkel at the nearby reef. We were quite surprised at how tame the stingrays were. I got to hold one, kiss another, and feed several. We even got backrubs from these docile creatures. Our guide was so used to them he even put the stinger in his mouth. Just goes to show how lame some myths can be.

Discovery
Columbus discovered Little Cayman and Cayman Brac during his fourth and last voyage to the New World, on May 10, 1503. While sailing from Panama to Hispaniola, severe winds pushed his ships off course west. The ship's log reported "... we were in sight of two very small islands, full of tortoise, as was the sea about, inasmuch as they looked like little rocks." Consequently, Columbus named the islands Las Tortugas after the abundant sea turtles sighted.

The islands were later named Lagartos, meaning alligator or large lizard and finally, the name Caymanas was applied around 1540, derived from the Carib word for marine crocodile. This name in a modified form remained since the late 16th century.

Sir Francis Drake visited the islands during a voyage between 1585-86 and reported sighting "great serpents called Caymanas, like large lizards, which are edible." An anonymous author in Drake's fleet also described 10 ft. crocodiles. According to the Cayman Islands National Archive, there are written accounts of Cayman dating back to the 1830's which describe the shooting of crocodiles as a Sunday sport.

During the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the islands were replenishment centers supplying abundant fresh water and food, including sea turtles and wild fowl, for English, Dutch, French and Spanish explorers and buccaneers and ships plying the Spanish Main route.

The British Empire
They came under British control in 1655 when Jamaica was captured from the Spanish by Oliver Cromwell's army. They officially became part of the British Empire under the Treaty of Madrid in 1670, after which Spain recognized British possession of "all lands, islands, colonies and places situated in the West Indies." For almost 300 years after that, the islands were administered as a dependency of Jamaica.

The first recorded settlement was of Little Cayman and Cayman Brac between 1666-1671, while Sir Thomas Modyford was Governor of Jamaica, comprising descendants of emigrants from the British Isles.
(Courtesy of caymanislands.ky)