C ay man
®
photos.com
G ran d
From Privateers to Master Fishermen
Seagoing adventurers have long been drawn to the Caymans.
by Marjorie Klein
The wide beaches and cool caves of Grand Cayman echo with the rich history of its early inhabitants: turtles, crocodiles, pirates, sailors, soldiers, settlers and slaves. Beginnings Christopher Columbus first spotted the islands he called Las Tortugas on May 10, 1503, when his ship was blown off course from Panama to Hispaniola on his final trip to the New World. The three islands, so populated with tortoises that they looked like rock piles, became a way station for sailors to replenish their freshwater supply and stock up on turtle meat. Perhaps the presence of turtle on the menu resulted in the animals’ decline; by 1586, crocodiles had become so dominant that Sir Francis Drake, the first recorded English visitor, renamed the islands caiman (the Carib word for “crocodile”), from which their present name Cayman is derived. The Cayman Islands’ population stayed the same — comprising primarily sailors and pirates — until Oliver Cromwell’s British army defeated Spain in 1655. The Treaty of Madrid brought both the Caymans and Jamaica under British rule and made Grand Cayman a destination for settlers.
200
Rule Britannia: the settlers settle in The first influx arrived: emigrants from England, Holland, Spain and France, plus refugees from the Spanish Inquisition and deserters from Cromwell’s army. Privateers, the genteel name for pirates such as Sir Henry Morgan who had their governments’ permission to plunder ships — ostensibly to retrieve wealth stolen from their country — discouraged these early settlers, many of whom high-tailed it back home. Blackbeard, as well as other pirates, found the caves, nooks and crannies of Grand Cayman to be the perfect hideout. Some pirates never made it to land, their ships having been lured onto the reefs by the beacon fires of the Caymanians, who strenuously resisted these invaders. By 1700, the first royal land grant in Grand Cayman signaled permanent settlement, followed by others throughout the island. The first recorded inhabitant was Isaac Bodden, grandson of the original settler, a soldier from Cromwell’s army for whom Bodden
PRINCESS CRUISES DISCOVERY
13CAR_Gran Cayman.indd 200
10/10/13 11:27 AM