Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra
Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra | |
---|---|
Lima, Viceroyalty of Peru | |
Died | 26 March 1794 Mexico City, New Spain | (aged 50)
Allegiance | Spain |
Service/ | Spanish Navy |
Years of service | 1763–1793 |
Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (22 May 1743 – 26 March 1794) was a Spanish Criollo naval officer operating in the Americas. Assigned to the Pacific coast Spanish Naval Department base at San Blas, in Viceroyalty of New Spain (present day Mexico), he explored the Northwest Coast of North America as far north as present day Alaska. Bodega Bay in California is named for him.
Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra joined the Spanish Naval Academy in Cádiz at 19, and four years later, in 1767 was commissioned as an officer of the rank Frigate Ensign (alférez de fragata). In 1773 he was promoted to Ship Ensign (alférez de navío), and in 1774 to Ship Lieutenant (teniente de navío).
Parentage
Bodega y Quadra was born in Lima, Peru, to Tomás de la Bodega y de las Llanas of
Pacific expeditions
1775 expedition
In 1775 under the command of Lieutenant
The Spaniards were given orders to explore the coast and to go ashore so that the newly discovered territories would be recognized as Spanish lands. Most important for the expedition was the identification of
On 13 July 1775, they reached the vicinity of
Bodega wanted to avenge his lost sailors, but, was overruled by Heceta, who pointed out the expedition had orders to use force only in self-defense. Quinault ethnologists have come up with theories about the sudden attack, one being that the land-claiming ceremony was understood for what it was. Of particular note was the placement of a large cross on the beach. The Quinault would have understood that the erecting of a tall pole with a crossbar during an obviously religious ritual was a symbolically powerful act.[3]
Shaken by this disaster, and with most of his crew suffering from scurvy, Hezeta decided to return to New Spain, but Bodega y Quadra refused to follow him without having completed the essential mission, which was to locate the Russians. He continued northward on the Sonora and got as far as what is now close to
1779 expedition
On February 11, 1779, the
The expedition anchored in
In 1780 Bodega y Quadra was promoted to capitán de fragata (
Peru
In 1780 Bodega was ordered to sail to the
Spain
Shortly after Bodega's return to San Blas he received orders to go to Havana, Cuba. There, in 1784, he requested and received permission to travel to Spain, which he did in 1785. He spent four mostly discouraging and frustrating years in Spain. However, there were at least two positive events. First, the king approved Bodega's promotion to capitán de navío (Ship Captain) on 15 November 1786, the highest naval rank below flag officer ranks. Second, he was knighted by the King of Spain as a full-fledged knight of the Order of Santiago—the most prestigious of Spain's four orders of chivalry. It was very difficult to earn a commission in the Order of Santiago. Bodega had begun the process in 1775. He was finally knighted by the king on 8 April 1788.[10]
Commandant of San Blas
At the end of his stay in Spain, Bodega was appointed commandant of the Naval Department of San Blas. Instructed to select six junior officers to serve under him at San Blas, Bodega y Quadra chose Manuel Quimper, Ramón Saavedra Guiráldez y Ordóñez, Francisco de Eliza, Salvador Fidalgo, Jacinto Caamaño, and Salvador Menéndez Valdés. Bodega and these six officers sailed to America on the same ship that was carrying the new Viceroy of New Spain, Conde de Revillagigedo. The viceroy and Bodega arrived to find themselves in the immediate aftermath of the Nootka Crisis. They had two pressing issues to deal with right away. First they had to arrange for the release of the British ships, officers, and sailors taken prisoner by Martínez in 1789. Second, they had to respond to the Royal Order of April 14, 1789, which required that the Spanish establishment at Nootka Sound be maintained. At first neither Revillagigedo nor Bodega knew that Martínez had abandoned Nootka Sound. The Royal Order thus meant that a new expedition be immediately organized for the purpose of reoccupying, permanently, Nootka Sound. The reoccupation expedition was organized very quickly.
The three ships, Concepción, San Carlos, and Princesa Real sailed from San Blas and arrived at Nootka Sound in early April 1790. Francisco de Eliza was appointed commandant. Quimper, Fidalgo, and other officers were part of the expedition. The First Company of the
Nootka Sound Commandant
Quadra was called as an expert witness in the aftermath of the Nootka Crisis at Nootka Sound.[12] In 1789, as the Commandant based at San Blas, he sent out several new expeditions of exploration. In 1791 he was appointed Spanish commissioner to negotiate and administer the implementation of the Nootka Conventions at Nootka Sound.
As commandant of the Spanish establishment at Nootka, Bodega made a point of hosting and entertaining every visitor, indigenous and European. He held feasts for the officers of every ship that arrived at Nootka Sound, including the French fur-trading ship La Flavie, the "Portuguese" ship Feliz Aventureira (actually a British ship masquerading as Portuguese), the American ships Columbia, under Robert Gray, and Hope, under Joseph Ingraham, Vancouver's ships HMS Discovery and Chatham, and a number of others. The journals of many people who visited Nootka Sound during the summer of 1792 record amazement at the grandeur of Bodega's dinners, especially at such a remote part of the world, at which over fifty people would be served many courses on Bodega's personal collection of about 300 pieces of silver dinner ware. Bodega also provided ship repair services to any vessel needing them. A number of ships, including the Chatham, were careened and repaired by Spanish workers.[13]
Island of Quadra and Vancouver
In August 1792, Bodega welcomed English Captain George Vancouver.[14] The two commanders swiftly established friendly relations, including joint explorations and the sharing of supplies and information. Vancouver provided the services of his surgeon, Archibald Menzies, to help Quadra with increasingly serious headaches. During their meetings Bodega y Quadra asked Vancouver to name "some port or Island after us both" (however, Bodega wrote in his journal that it was Vancouver who made the suggestion). Since Vancouver had determined that the land upon which Nootka stood was a great island, he proposed that they name it Quadra's and Vancouver's Island: "would name some port or island after us both in commemoration of our meeting and friendly intercourse that on that occasion had taken place (Vancouver had previously feted Quadra on his ship);....and conceiving no place more eligible than the place of our meeting, I have therefore named this land...The Island of Quadra and Vancouver." It was thus entered upon the explorer's charts, but this name was later shortened to Vancouver Island.
However, the two commanders were unable to reconcile the conflicts in the instructions from their respective governments. At issue was whether the Spanish were to hand over only the small plot of land actually built upon by the adventurer John Meares, or the entire West Coast, or something in between. It is scarcely contested that Meares had exaggerated the extent of his discoveries. However, Bodega y Quadra was handicapped by uncertainties as to how far his superiors' wished to maintain Spanish sovereignty in a part of the world that had limited strategic value. He improvised and by chance pressed for exactly the condition that both the king and viceroy later communicated to him. Vancouver was likewise handicapped by a lack of instructions. He stuck by a strictly literal interpretation of Article I of the Nootka Convention. Having reached an impasse, the two agreed to refer the points at issue back to their respective governments in Madrid and London; Quadra arranged passage for Vancouver's envoy, William Robert Broughton, through Mexico. Viceroy Revillagigedo chastised Bodega for allowing Broughton passage through New Spain. Eventually, Spain and Great Britain signed an agreement on January 11, 1794,[15] in which they agreed to abandon the region (the third Nootka Convention).
Death
After suffering from chronic headaches for several years, in April 1793 Bodega y Quadra requested a leave from his duties to restore his health. It was granted and he left San Blas for Guadalajara and Mexico City. He suffered a strong fluxo de sangre (blood loss or haemorrhage) in Guadalajara. He had a seizure in Mexico City and died there on March 26, 1794, at the age of 50. The internist Dr. John Naish has conjectured that Bodega y Quadra's death was the result of either a brain tumor or the severest form of hypertension. Given the lack of details and the imprecision contemporary diagnosis and description, Viceroy Revillagigedo's official statement that Bodega died "of natural causes" is indisputable.[16] His body was interred at the Convent of San Fernando, of the order of San Francisco in Mexico City.[17]
When George Vancouver, at Nootka Sound again in September 1794, learned of Bodega's death, he wrote in his journal (grammar and misspellings from the original):
"The death of our highly valuable and much esteemed friend Senr Quadra, who in the month of March had died at St. Blas, universally lamaneted. Having endeavoured, on a former occasion, to point out the degree of admiration and respect with which the conduct of Sen'r Quadra toward our little community had impressed us during his life, I cannot refrain, now that he is no more, from rendering that justice to his memory to which it is so amply intitled, by stating, that the unexpected melancholey event of his decease operated on the minds of us all, in a way more easily to be imagined than described: and whilst it excited our most grateful acknowledgements, it produced the deepest regret for the loss of a character so amiable, and so truly ornamental to civil society."[18]
Legacy
Places named after him:
- Bodega Bay in northern California.
- Vancouver Island was frequently referred to as "Vancouver's and Quadra's Island" on many 19th century maps.
- Quadra Island, an island in British Columbia, Canada. Quadra Island was named after him in 1903
- Quadra Street, an arterial road in Victoria, British Columbia, and neighbouring Saanich.
- Boca de Bodega (Bodega Inlet) is the entrance around Wadleigh Island. It was named by Francisco Antonio Mourelle on May 24, 1779.[19]
- HMCS Quadra, a Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Summer Training Centre in Comox, BC
- The federal electoral district of Vancouver Quadra on the West Side of the city of Vancouver, BC
Places he named:
- He named the Point that we know as Point Grenville, "Punta de los Martires" (Point of the Martyrs).
- Canoa Point (Canoe Point) was named by Bodega/Mourelle in 1775/79. It is a point of land on the northeastern shore of Prince of Wales Island jutting into Trocadero Bay at 133°1′25″ W.[19]
- Discovered and named Bucareli Soundarea.
- Unlucky Island (La Desgraciada), a name given by Bodega/Mourelle to an island located at 133°3′15″ W.[19]
- Ladrones Islands were named Islas de Ladrones (Thieves) by Bodega/Mourelle in 1779. These five islands are located at 55°23′ N and 133°5′ W.[19]
- Cañas Island (Reeds) is an island in Trocadero Bay. Bodega/Mourelle named it Ysla de Cañas.[19]
- Trinidad, California was named by him along with Bruno de Heceta on Trinity Sunday, June 11, 1775.[20]
Other:
- The Quadra rose, developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, was named in his honour.[21]
- Juan Francisco Bodega y Quadra
- Juan Francisco de Bodega y Quadra
- Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra
- Juan Fran[cis]co de la Bodega y Quadra
- Juan Francisco de la Quadra
- Juan de la Bodega y Quadra
See also
Notes and references
- ISBN 9780295971032.
- ^ ISBN 978-970-32-3474-5.
- ^ Tovell (2008), pp. 25–29.
- HistoryLink.org. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
- ^ Derek Hayes,'Historical Atlas of the North Pacific Ocean', page 91
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Port Etches
- ^ Tovell (2008), pp. 94–95.
- ^ Tovell (2008), p. 111.
- ^ Tovell (2008), pp. 115–120.
- ^ Tovell (2008), pp. 122–128.
- ^ Tovell (2008), pp. 124–125, 134–136, 143–150.
- ISBN 0-7734-8857-X.
- ^ Tovell (2008), pp. 225–229.
- ISBN 0-933686-00-5.
- ^ "The Evacuation of Nootka". Canadian Military Heritage. Government of Canada. Archived from the original on 23 February 2007. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
- ^ Tovell (2008), pp. 327–330.
- ^ Biography of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (1744-1794), TheBiography, archived from the original on 4 March 2022, retrieved 22 September 2021
- ^ Tovell (2008), p. 334.
- ^ a b c d e ExploreNorth.com Spanish Place Names on the Face of Alaska. Retrieved 29 March 2005
- ISBN 978-08047781-7-6.
- ^ [1] Quadra rose
General references
- Cook, Warren L. (1979). "Bodega y Quadra, Juan Francisco de la". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. IV (1771–1800) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
- History of Southern Oregon: Pacific Coast -- by A. G. Walling 1884
- Vancouver Island History
- Canadian Military Heritage
- Spanish Exploration: Hezeta (Heceta) and Bodega y Quadra Expedition of 1775 to Formally Claim the Pacific Northwest for Spain
- BC Bookworld on Bodega y Quadra, with a bibliography.
- Tovell, Freeman M. (2008). At the Far Reaches of Empire: The Life of Juan Francisco De La Bodega Y Quadra. University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 978-0-7748-1367-9.
Further reading
- Derek Hayes (1999). Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest: Maps of Exploration and Discovery: British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Yukon. Sasquatch Books. ISBN 1-57061-215-3
- Michael E. Thurman (1967). The Naval Department of San Blas: New Spain's Bastion for Alta California and Nootka, 1769–1798. The Arthur H. Clark Company.
External links
- HistoryLink: Spanish Exploration (1775), with maps and references.
- HistoryLink: Spanish Exploration (1779)
- "The Spanish explore the West Coast". Pathfinders and Passageways: The Exploration of Canada. Library and Archives Canada. 15 February 2018. Archived from the original on 10 June 2018.
- Spanish exploration, long article with a good bibliography.
- Book Review: At the Far Reaches of Empire: The Life of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, Oregon Historical Quarterly
- American memory, a map from Bodega y Quadra.