MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Prince Edward Arrives in Cayman Islands

On his first visit to the Cayman Islands, Britain's Prince Edward unveiled a monument to the teachers, doctors and activists who have contributed to the British territory's history over the last 500 years.

Edward, the third and youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II .was among 300 people at the Friday night ceremony celebrating the history of the islands that were discovered by Christopher Columbus on May 10, 1503, on his fourth and last voyage to the New World.

Edward, Earl of Wessex, apologized for the absence of his wife, Sophie, saying she was disappointed but doctors advised her not to travel because she was pregnant. The child, due in December, would be the couple's first.

On Saturday, the prince was to preside over the Cayman Islands' first official seafarers' festival.

The British territory ? once called Las Tortugas, or The Turtles in Spanish ? was known for its large populations of turtles and marine crocodiles that provided fresh meat for sailors in the 16th century. In 1530, the islands were renamed the Caymans, after the Spanish term for crocodiles.

The three islands came under British control in 1655 when Oliver Cromwell's army captured nearby Jamaica from the Spanish. British settlers began arriving around 1700, and the Caymans became a British Caribbean territory in 1863.

The Cayman Islands opted to remain under the British crown when the neighboring colony of Jamaica gained independence in 1962.