Abstract
From their earliest settlement (1661 and 1685) by turtle fishermen, shipwrecked mariners and Cromwell’s deserters Cayman’s rocky terrain was only fit for subsistence farming, and its large mangrove swamps, giving rise to hordes of mosquitoes, made these islands unattractive to agricultural colonisation, with the result that the inhabitants turned to the sea for a livelihood or emigrated. These factors led to the Caymans’ historical neglect, isolation and underpopulation (8,511 people in 1960); even by 1944 only 15 expatriates resided in Grand Cayman. Of these ‘three were American and one English, the Commissioner’ (Billmyer 1946). A bi-monthly boat service to Jamaica was the only regular link with the outside world.
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Giglioli, M.E.C. (1994). The boom years in Grand Cayman; environmental deterioration and conservation. In: Brunt, M.A., Davies, J.E. (eds) The Cayman Islands. Monographiae Biologicae, vol 71. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0904-8_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0904-8_23
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