Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (22 May 1743 – 26 March 1794) was a Spanish Criollo naval officer operating in the Americas.

This followed the first Spanish expedition by Juan Pérez in 1774, who had failed to reach and claim the upper northwest coast for Spain.

Bodega y Quadra had all the training and qualifications necessary to be considered for a senior officer position, but as a non-Spaniard he was subject to the class prejudice common to Spain and the colonial Americas during that time.

Early the next day an armed party from the Santiago went ashore and quickly conducted a possession ceremony, which was observed by some Quinaults.

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.

[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.

They charted every bay and inlet in search of the Northwest Passage, going north to 58°30′ before turning back from Alaska due to bad weather.

All the officers and chaplains went ashore in procession, raised a large cross while cannons and muskets fired salutes.

The title to Puerto de Santiago was important for years afterward, as it formed the basis of Spain's claim to sovereignty in the North Pacific up to 61°17′N.

[7] In 1780 Bodega y Quadra was promoted to capitán de fragata (Frigate Captain), in recognition of his achievements during the 1779 voyage.

Bodega finally reached Callao, Peru, on 18 July 1782, thirteen months after sailing from San Blas.

Bodega sailed from Callao at the end of March 1783, carrying the cargo of military supplies and a number of passengers.

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 Royal Order thus meant that a new expedition be immediately organized for the purpose of reoccupying, permanently, Nootka Sound.

The expedition had to be well supplied, not only with cannons and munitions but also with warm clothes, new equipment for the soldiers under Alberni, materials for constructing buildings and Fort San Miguel, thousands of sheets of copper for trading or giving to the indigenous peoples, and numerous other goods.

As commandant of the Spanish establishment at Nootka, Bodega made a point of hosting and entertaining every visitor, indigenous and European.

[14] The two commanders swiftly established friendly relations, including joint explorations and the sharing of supplies and information.

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.

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.

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.

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).

After suffering from chronic headaches for several years, in April 1793 Bodega y Quadra requested a leave from his duties to restore his health.

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.

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.