Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra

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Captain Juan Francisco Bodega y Quadra, Marina real (around 1785)

Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (baptized June 3, 1743 in Lima ( Peru ), † March 26, 1794 in Mexico City ) was a Spanish naval officer , explorer and navigator .

From 1774 to 1788 he sailed for the Spanish Navy from San Blas (in the Mexican state of Nayarit ), exploring the Pacific Northwest of North America to Alaska . He took part in two expeditions (1775 and 1779) and was killed in a military conflict in Mexico.

Life

Early career

Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra was the son of Tomás de la Bodega y de las Llanas, a Spaniard who worked in government services in Cuzco , and Francisca de Mollinedo y Losada, who came from an influential Peruvian aristocratic family. He entered the Academy of Armada Española in Cádiz at the age of 19 and became an officer four years later . In 1774 he came to San Blas, the Spanish capital for the west coast of America.

Between San Blas and Alaska

As captain on the schooner Sonora , he sailed together with Juan José Pérez Hernández in the expedition led by Bruno de Hezeta . He explored the coast of today's California and discovered some 85 km north of the San Francisco Bay to Bodega Bay , named together with the built there in 1809 moved to him. He led his ship further north than his companions and reached latitude 58 ° 30 'north. He also discovered and named the Bucareli Sound in Alaska in the Alexander Archipelago .

He was sent to Peru in 1776 to escort a ship to the northwest coast. In 1777 he returned to San Blas with the frigate Favorita , a ship on which he sailed to Alaska under the command of Ignacio de Arteaga. They should find out how far the Russian influence already reached in the region and bring up the ships of James Cook - who at that time had long been killed in Hawaii .

Bodega, who had been knighted by the Order of Santiago in 1776 , became a frigate captain in 1780. Until 1781 he took command in San Blas, went to Havana in 1783 and to Cadiz in Spain in 1784.

His successor on the northwest coast was Esteban José Martínez . Martínez built a settlement on the Nootka Sound and captured four British ships, which in turn made territorial claims on the area; He had the prisoners brought to San Blas in the angry ships. Bulky reports of the incidents sparked a serious diplomatic crisis in Europe known as the Nootka crisis . William Pitt , the British Prime Minister, pressured Spain to the limit of open war. It was not until the Nootka Convention of 1790 that the situation eased.

Negotiations for Nootka Island

Bodega, who had meanwhile taken command again in San Blas, sailed again to Nootka Island in 1792 to take over the small trading colony. With diplomatic skill and friendliness, he won over all negotiators, be they British, American or the two chiefs Maquinna and Wickaninnish . Captain Robert Gray , an American fur trader, was so respectful that he named his son Robert Don Quadra Gray . At least he managed that neither the Americans nor the British set up a trading base, but the area was neutralized.

Quadra tried to set up a second trading post at Núñez Gaona ( Neah Bay , Washington). At the same time, he had the coast between Alaska and Washington mapped. Bodega spent the winter of 1792–93 in Monterey, California . In the spring of 1793 he returned to San Blas.

But his health was so bad that he had to recover in Guadalajara . He fell victim to an uprising in Mexico City on March 26, 1794.

George Vancouver wrote of him: “The well known generosity of my other Spanish friends, will, I trust, pardon the warmth of expression with which I must ever advertise to the conduct of Senor Quadra; who, regardless of the difference of opinion that had risen between us in our diplomatic capacities at Nootka, had uniformly maintained toward us a character infinitely beyond the reach of my powers of encomium to describe. His benevolence was not only confined to the common rights of hospitality, but was extended to all occasions, and was exercised in every instance, where His Majesty's service, combined with my commission, was in the least concerned. "

literature

  • Derek Hayes: Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest. Maps of Exploration and Discovery. British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Yukon. Sasquatch Books, Seattle WA 1999, ISBN 1-57061-215-3 .
  • Michael E. Thurman: The Naval Department of San Blas. New Spain's Bastion for Alta California and Nootka, 1769 ton 1798 (= Spain in the West. Volume 11, ZDB -ID 275587-7 ). The Arthur H. Clark Company, Glendale CA 1967.
  • Freeman M. Tovell: At the Far Reaches of Empire. The Life of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra. UBC Press, Vancouver 2008, ISBN 978-0-7748-1366-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from: abcbookworld.com .
personal data
SURNAME Bodega y Quadra, Juan Francisco de la
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish naval officer, explorer and navigator
DATE OF BIRTH baptized June 3, 1743
PLACE OF BIRTH Lima , Peru
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 1794
Place of death Mexico city