Cayman Islands.
Information.
The CAYMAN ISLANDS is a British Overseas Territory located in the western Caribbean Sea. Area - 264 sq.km Population - 50,000 (2010) Capital - George Town The Cayman Islands were sighted by Christopher Columbus, on 10 May 1503 on his fourth and final voyage to the New World. He named the islands Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles there. The first recorded English visitor to the islands was Sir Francis Drake, who landed there in 1586 and named them the Cayman Islands after caiman, the Neo-Taino nations' term for alligator. The Cayman Islands remained largely uninhabited until the 17th century. A variety of people settled on the islands, including pirates, refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, shipwrecked sailors, deserters from Oliver Cromwell's army in Jamaica, and slaves. The majority of Caymanians are of African and English descent, with considerable interracial mixing. England took formal control of the Cayman Islands, along with Jamaica, under the Treaty of Madrid in 1670. Following several unsuccessful attempts, permanent settlement of the islands began in the 1730s. They were governed as a single colony with Jamaica until 1962 when they became a separate Crown colony and Jamaica became an independent Commonwealth realm. Currency : Cayman Islands dollar (KYD)