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The Cayman Islands are a British overseas territory located in the Caribbean that have been under various governments since their discovery by Europeans. Christopher Columbus sighted the Cayman Islands on May 10, 1503 and named them ''Las Tortugas'' after the numerous sea turtles seen swimming in the surrounding waters. Columbus had found the two small islands (Cayman Brac and Little Cayman) and it was these two islands that he named "Las Tortugas". The 1523 "Turin map" of the islands was the first to refer to them as ''Los Lagartos'', meaning alligators or large lizards,〔Roger C. Smith, ''The maritime heritage of the Cayman Islands'', 2000 p.26〕 By 1530 they were known as the Caymanes after the Carib word ''caimán'' for the marine crocodile, either the American or the Cuban crocodile, ''Crocodylus acutus'' or ''C. rhombifer'', which also lived there. Recent sub-fossil findings suggest that ''C. rhombifer'', a freshwater species, were prevalent until the 20th century. ==Settlement== Archaeological studies of Grand Cayman have found no evidence that humans occupied the islands prior to the sixteenth century.〔 〕 The first recorded English visitor was Sir Francis Drake in 1586, who reported that the ''caymanas'' were edible, but it was the turtles which attracted ships in search of fresh meat for their crews. Overfishing nearly extinguished the turtles from the local waters. Caymanian folklore explains that the island's first inhabitants were a Welshman named Walters (or Watler) and his companion named Bawden (or Bodden), who first arrived in Cayman in 1658 after serving in Oliver Cromwell's army in Jamaica.〔 〕 The first recorded permanent inhabitant of the Cayman Islands, Isaac Bodden, was born on Grand Cayman around 1700. He was the grandson of the original settler named Bodden. A variety of people settled on the islands: pirates, refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, shipwrecked sailors, and slaves. The majority of Caymanians are of African and English descent, with considerable interracial mixing. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the Cayman Islands」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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