Page 291 - The British Big Four

Turks and Caicos

Long before Christopher Columbus first set foot on the capital today. Words such as “canoe”, Caribbean and “caicos” are derived
island of Grand Turk during his discovery voyage of the new from the Arawak language. Even the name of the country comes
world in 1492, the islands of the Turks & Caicos were inhabited by from these earliest inhabitants. Turks is a reference to the indig-
Taino and Lucayan Indians. These original settlers left a rich her- enous Turk’s head cactus and Caicos is from the Lucayan term“caya
itage of seafaring, salt raking and farming, which still lingers on hico” meaning string of islands.