Juan Francisco Bodega y Quadra

Bodega y Quadra, Juan Francisco (1743-1794) was a Spanish naval officer born in Lima, Peru. Sailing from the Spanish Naval Department at San Blas what now is Mexico, from 1774 – 1788 this South American navigator explored the Northwest Coast of North America as far north as Alaska.

Career

Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra joined the Spanish Naval Academy in Cádiz at 19, and four years later was commissioned as an officer.

The 1775 expedition

In 1775 under the command of Lieutenant Bruno de Hezeta, the Spanish explored the Pacific Northwest. This was following the first Spanish expedition by Pérez in 1774, who had failed to claim the NW Coast for Spain. The expedition consisted of two ships: the Santiago, commanded by Hezeta himself and the schooner Sonora (La Señora), commanded by his second in command, Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra. Bodega y Quadra was given the lesser position of second officer on the Sonora despite the fact that he outranked the others. Bodega y Quadra had all the training and qualifications necessary to be considered for a senior officer position, but as a non-native Spaniard he was subject to the class prejudice common to Spain and the colonial Americas during that time. So he was passed over for promotions.

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 Russian settlements. The ships left San Blas on the 16 of March 1775. Illnesses (scurvy), storms, poor sailing capacities of the Sonora, and other incidents slowed their progress. Until on the 14 of July 1775 they reached the vicinity of Point Grenville, in what today is Washington State. The Indians had been friendly until that point so some sailors were sent ashore to get water, when they were suddenly massacred by some 300 Indians attacking from the woods, all this happening under the horrified gaze of their companions who had remained on board the ships. Bodega y Quadra had them open fire, but his ship was too far away.

Shaken by this disaster, Hezeta decided to return to Mexico, 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 Sitka, Alaska, reaching 59˚ North Latitude on August 15, 1775¹. Failing to find any Russians, he returned southward. When returning he made sure that he landed once to claim the coast for Spain. This expedition made it clear to the Spanish that the Russians didn't have a large presence in the Pacific Northwest.

The 1779 expedition

On February 11 1779 the frigates Princesa and Favorita, under the command of Lieutenant Ignacio de Arteaga and his second in command, Lieutenant Bodega y Quadra, left San Blas again. Their mission was to explore the northwest coast, and not to intervene with the assumed English navigators there. They charted every bay and inlet in search of the Northwest Passage, going north to 58 degrees 30 minutes before turning back from Alaska due to bad weather. They completed the complex process begun earlier of claiming the Pacific Northwest for Spain.

The meeting with Vancouver in 1792

British Captain George Vancouver and Captain Bodega y Quadra the Spanish commissioner met at Nootka in August 1792 to negotiate over the ownership of the area. They maintained good relations but were unable to agree on the details to be covered by the agreement. Bodega y Quadra was handicapped by uncertainties about the desirable extent of Spanish sovereignty and the future of Nootka. They agreed to refer the points at issue back to their respective governments in Madrid and London. During their meetings Bodega y Quadra asked Vancouver to name "some port or Island after us both". Since the land upon which Nootka stood had been found to be an island, Vancouver responded by naming their meeting place Quadra and Vancouver's Island. It was therefore entered upon the explorer's charts as Quadra and Vancouver's Island (or Island of Quadra and Vancouver), but this name was soon shortened to Vancouver Island. Some historians have even ascribed a deliberate effort by the later cartographers of the Hudson's Bay Company to erase any evidence (for ex. removing Quadra's name from Quadra and Vancouver's Island) that the British had not been pre-eminent in the region before any other European power.

Spain and Great Britain signed an agreement on January 11, 1794², in which they agreed to abandon the region (the third Nootka Convention).

In 1794 a sudden fatal seizure cut short his career while he was in Mexico City.

Bodega y Quadra

Names used in the literature:

• 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 de la Bodega y Cuadra

Places named after:

• Quadra Island, an island in British Columbia, Canada. Quadra Island was named after him in 1903
• Boca de Bodega (Mouth of Bodega) is the entrance around Wadleigh Island. It was named by Mourelle on May 24, 1779.³

Places he named:

• Bowen Island was called Isla de Apodaca by Quadra but the name was changed a week later by George Vancouver.
• 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° 0l' 25" W.³
• Discovered and named Bucareli Sound in Alaska.
• Unlucky Island (La Desgraciada), a name given by Bodega/Mourelle to a island located at 133° 03' 15" W.³
• Ladrones Islands were named Islas de Ladrones (Thieves) by Bodega/Mourelle in 1779. These five islands are located at 55° 23' N and 133° 05' W.³
• Cañas Island (Reeds) is an island in Trocadero Bay. Bodega/Mourelle named it Ysla de Cañas.³

References

• 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.

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• History Ink: Spanish Exploration (1775), with maps and references.
• History Ink: Spanish Exploration (1779)
• Pathfinders and passageways: The exploration of Canada: THE SPANISH Explore the West Coast
• Spanish exploration, long article with a good bibliography.
• American memory, a map from Bodega y Quadra.

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 1570612153
• 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. ASIN B0006BOMXY

Notes

• Note 1: History Ink (2005). Sonora's Journey North. Retrieved 26 March 2005.
• Note 2: The Department of National Defence: Canadian Military Heritage. Evacuation of Nootka. Retrieved 26 March 2005.
• Note 3: ExploreNorth. Place Names on the Face of Alaska. Retrieved 29 March 2005.