Pedro de Alberni

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Don Pedro de Alberni , at times also called Pere d'Alberní i Teixidor ( Catalan , [ˈpeɾə ðəɫβərˈni] ), ( January 30, 1747 in Tortosa - March 11, 1802 in Monterey , New Spain ), was a Spanish officer and politician who was the Spanish crown served. He spent most of his military career in the colony of Mexico. He is best known for participating in the exploration of the Pacific Northwest in the 1790s and later serving as the ninth Spanish governor of Upper California in 1800.

biography

The early years

Pedro de Alberni was born on January 30th, 1747 into a noble and wealthy family in Tortosa, Catalonia ( Spain ). His father, Jaume d'Alberní i Antolí, was a notary and honored citizen of Barcelona , who married Maria Inés Teixidor on June 24, 1728. The couple had five sons and two daughters. In accordance with general Catalan civil law, the eldest son, Pedro's brother Josep Antoni, was appointed heir to the Alberni family's estate. This also included the right to use the title of notary . The remaining siblings received a smaller amount of money from the inheritance. Because of this, Pedro and his other brothers joined the military. One of the brothers, Gerònim, went to the Cordoba regiment ; the other two, Joan Bautista and Jaume Pascual, joined the volunteer regiment. One of his sisters became a nun. Pedro joined Spain's Second Light Infantry Regiment on July 17, 1762 and, as a cadet, took part in the Spanish invasion of Portugal in 1762, which was part of the Seven Years' War , at the age of only 15 . He stayed with this regiment for five years before joining the Compañía Franca de Voluntarios de Cataluña . This is an independent military group made up of the so-called "Miquelets" (irregular Catalan troops).

From Cadiz to New Spain

In 1767 this group sent soldiers on a transatlantic trip to the colonies in New Spain. The aim of the mission was to defend the areas in the north of the colony of New Spain, the Provincias Internas del Norte de Nueva España, against the indigenous people. These provinces now stretch from Guanajuato to New Mexico and from Sonora to Texas .

On May 2, 1767, the unit sailed from Cádiz to Cuba and then on to Veracruz in New Spain. Composed of 98 soldiers under the command of Capitano Agustí Callis and three other officers (Pere Fages, Estevan de Vilaseca and Alberni), they reached their destination in August of the same year. The unit then moved from Veracruz to Guaymas in Sonora, where it arrived in April 1768, having previously called Mexico City , Tepic and San Blas . This meant that the entire journey took almost a year, starting from Barcelona to its end point, Guaymas.

In Sonora and California

Shortly after they reached Guaymas, the unit, under the command of Colonel Domingo Elizondo, took part in the fight against the "rebellious" natives of the Pima and the Seri and took part in Operation Cerro Prieto . After the successful completion of the operation, Alberni and the remaining soldiers of the company were sent to Mexico City and Guadalajara . Finally, Alberni was commander in Nayarit province for seven years .

In 1772 the company was divided between the said volunteer company, which was under the command of Capitano Callis, and the 2nd Compañía Franca de Voluntarios de Cataluña, under the command of Pedro Fages. Fages and a replacement of 25 soldiers moved to Alta California in 1769 as part of the Portolà expedition under the command of Gaspar de Portolà . The detachment stayed in Alta California and was stationed at the Presidio of Monterey, with Fages being appointed military governor in 1770 to succeed in Portola . When Callis died in 1782, Alberni was appointed captain of the Compañía Franca de Voluntarios de Cataluña .

The way to the Pacific Northwest

Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island
Reconstruction of Fort San Miguel
A look at homes in Nootka Sound
Friendly Cove , Nootka Sound

In 1789 the Viceroy of New Spain Manuel Antonio Flores ordered the 1st Compañía Franca de Voluntarios de Cataluña , now under the command of Alberni, to prepare for a transfer to San Blas and then for further transport to Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island . The task of the unit was to strengthen the fortress there after it was built by Esteban José Martínez in May 1789. Martínez had sent a request for 200 infantrymen, but before reinforcements could be sent in, Martínez left Nootka Sound in October 1789 because of a conflict. This was due to some British and US ships that traded in the region and some time later killed Callicum, who was a close relative of chief Maquinna of the Nuu-chah-nulth tribe . Even before the abandonment of the fortress of Nootka became known in Europe, the King of Spain issued the order on April 14, 1789 to keep the fortress of Nootka as a base. For this reason it was recaptured in 1790 by an expedition under the command of Francisco de Eliza . Alberni's soldiers now sailed with Eliza. In Nootka they rebuilt the fortress and enlarged it to become an artillery battery, which was then called Fort San Miguel.

The seizure of the English ships sparked the Nootka Controversy , which almost led to war between Spain and England over the question of supremacy in the Pacific Northwest region . Spain sent several expeditions to the region, beginning with Juan Pérez's voyage in 1774 to reassert claims to the entire west coast of North America.

In October 1789, Juan Vicente de Güemes, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo replaced Flores as Viceroy of New Spain, and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra became commandant of the San Blas Naval Department, responsible for all naval operations north of Mexico. Together they organized the expedition to recapture Nootka Sound. On December 7, 1789, Revillagigedo ordered the 1st Compañía Franca de Voluntarios de Cataluña to move to San Blas. The unit consisted of about 80 soldiers at its full strength and was under the command of Captain Pedro de Alberni, who had just been appointed in Guadalajara . The soldiers began their march from Guadalajara on January 1, 1790. They sailed from San Blas with the Eliza expedition. The squadron consisted of three ships: the Concepción under the command of Eliza, the San Carlos under the command of Salvador Fidalgo , and the Princesa Real under the command of Manuel Quimper. They left San Blas on February 3rd, 1790 and reached Nootka Sound on April 5th of that year.

During the voyage to Nootka Sound, Alberni was locked in his cabin on the Concepción for 70 days. It was the result of an argument with a senior Spanish officer. In the course of this conflict he defended the rights of his men and demanded that they be appropriately dressed and armed. They should also be paid for everything that is owed to them. Probably for this reason, he was later named governor of Upper California .

When Alberni arrived in Nootka, he rebuilt the artillery battery fortress that had been dismantled when it left Martínez Nootka. Reconstruction of the battery was very difficult. It was built on the tip of a rocky island - tall but small. Loopholes were built to support the rifles. It took four days to install eight large cannons. Six more, smaller cannons were later installed. The battery did not have enough room for the remaining eight large cannons that Eliza had brought, so they were stored on the mainland.

Alberni built barracks, a house for the commanding officers, a house for the captain, ovens, kilns and an infirmary. He also cultivated various fruits and types of fruit to ensure the food supply for the garrison. He was the first European to run a cultivated vegetable garden in British Columbia in more recent times. He also kept a register to record the temperatures, created a reference work of 630 words of the indigenous people and their translation into Spanish and brewed beer from the bark of the Coniferopsida , with which he tried to combat the vitamin deficiency disease scurvy . In a nutshell, he built, organized and managed the fortress and land defense of the Nootka settlement to ensure the well-being of its residents and the travelers who had arrived at the port. Many of his men from the Catalan Company took part in research expeditions to Alaska and the Juan de Fuca Strait, carried out in collaboration with other Spanish explorers and companies.

All the data that Alberni had compiled was later used by José Mariano Mociño , a naturalist born in New Spain. Mocino was the author of Noticias de Nootka (in English: News from Nootka ), took part in the Bodega Quadra expedition of 1792, and traveled with Alessandro Malaspina on his great research trip in 1791 . According to Mociño, Alberni won the appreciation and respect of the people around him, including the indigenous people, who flattered him with a poem dedicated to their chief Maquinna, with the music of Mambrú , a Spanish song based on the French song Malbrough s'en va -t-en guerre , originally from the War of the Spanish Succession . The lyrics are:

Macuina, Macuina, Macuina,
Asco Tais hua-cás
España, España, España
Hua-cás Macuina Nutka

English translation:

Macuina, Macuina, Macuina,
He's a great prince, friend of us
Spain, Spain, Spain
Is friend of Macuina and Nootka

German translation:

Maquinna, Maquinna, Maquinna,
He is a great prince, our friend
Spain, Spain, Spain
Is a friend of Maquinna and Nootka

This song became very popular in the region, so that José María Narváez also heard the indigenous peoples on the other side of Nootka Island and near Point Gray sing it (Narváez landed a year before the English captain George Vancouver where it is today the city of Vancouver is). Alberni's stay in Nootka coincided with a time when Spanish explorers and travelers from other nations were exploring the region.

Return to Mexico

At some point Alberni had completed all of his duties and, after working for two years in the fort, he was ordered to return to his unit in the Naval Department of San Blas . He was awarded the title of Governor and Commander of the Army of Fort San Miguel on Nootka Island according to a royal order by the Viceroy of New Spain Revillagigedo .

In July 1792 he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and after his mission in Nootka sent to Fort San Juan de Ulúa for eight months . Furthermore, he was in Veracruz commander of the fortress and lieutenant-colonel of the king for the Plaza de Veracruz. Afterwards Alberni was deployed in Guadalajara for two years .

In California

In April 1796 he and his company of 72 men returned to California on the orders of the Viceroy New Spain Miguel de la Grúa Talamanca y Branciforte, marqués de Branciforte to secure the Spanish military garrisons of Monterey , Santa Bárbara , San Diego and San Francisco . In 1800 he was made interim governor of California and commander of four military garrisons that Spain had in California (Monterey, Santa Bárbara, San Diego and San Francisco) until they were assigned a new governor. He stayed in California until his death.

death

Alberni died of edema on March 11, 1802, aged 55 in Monterey, Upper California. He was buried in the Royal Chapel of San Carlos in Monterey. Today his grave is likely beneath a highway that was built nearby; it was never found. In his will, dated December 16, 1801, he bequeathed all of his property to his wife, Juana Vélez, a native of Tepic , Mexico . His only daughter had died before him. Sergeant Joaquín Tico of the Compañía Franca de Voluntarios de Cataluña was his executor.

legacy

Alberni is portrayed in contemporary sources as a person with a strong, courageous but diplomatic character who knew how to master problems even in difficult times. There are a number of places named after him in Canada and Spain:

Fonts

  • Pedro de Alberni, Juan de la Bodega y Cuadra, Manuel Antonio Flores, Pedro Gorostiza, Francisco Hijosa, Juan Vicente Güémez Pacheco de Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo Revillagigedo, Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola, Antonio Villaurrutia y Salcedo: Pedro de Alberni papers . 1789, OCLC 122443578 (collection of letters and documents in a hardback relating to Pedro Albernis' expedition in San Blas, Mexico [1789 and 1790], the deployment of his troops in Nootka and their return to San Blas in 1792).

See also

Further web links and literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Troisième voyage de Cook, ou voyage à l'Océan Pacifique, ordonné par le Roi d'Angleterre, pour faire des découvertes dans l'hémisphere nord [...] exécuté sous la direction des capitaines Cook, Clerke et Gore sur les vaisseaux la Résolution et la Découverte, en 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779 & 1780 . Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London 1785, pp. 76 ff . ( archive.org ).
  2. ↑ Captain George Vancouver : A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World. Volume I, Figure VII., P. 397 ( archive.org ).
  3. ^ A b Freeman M. Tovell: At the Far Reaches of Empire. The Life of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra . UBC Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7748-5836-6 , pp. 130-137 ( books.google.de ).
  4. ↑ Freeman M. Tovell: At the Far Reaches of Empire. The Life of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra . UBC Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7748-5836-6 , pp. 144, 150-151 ( books.google.de ).
  5. ↑ George Lang: Making Wawa: The Genesis of Chinook Jargon . UBC Press, July 1, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7748-5860-1 , p. 35.
personal data
SURNAME Alberni, Pedro de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alberní i Teixidor, Pere d '
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish officer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 30, 1747
PLACE OF BIRTH Tortosa
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 1802
Place of death Monterey , New Spain