Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest
Spain only started to colonize the claimed territory north of present-day Mexico in the 18th century, when it settled the northern coast of Las Californias.
Starting in the mid-18th century, Spain's claims in the Pacific Northwest began to be contested by the British and Russians, who established fur trading posts and other settlements in the region.
In 1775, a second voyage of ninety men led by Lieutenant Bruno de Heceta aboard the Santiago, set sail from San Blas, Nayarit on March 16, 1775 with orders to make clear Spanish claims for the entire Northwestern Pacific Coast.
The 36-foot (11 m) long[3] Sonora and its crew complement of 16 were to perform coastal reconnaissance and mapping, and could make landfall in places the larger Santiago was unable to approach on its previous voyage; in this way, the expedition could officially reassert Spanish claims to the lands north of New Spain it visited.
Ayala's mission was to explore the Golden Gate strait while Heceta and Bodega y Quadra continued north.
During the return voyage south Bodega y Quadra discovered, named, and explored a portion of Bucareli Bay on the west side of Prince of Wales Island.
[6] The expedition's objective was to evaluate the Russian penetration of Alaska, search for a Northwest Passage, and capture James Cook if they found him in Spanish waters.
[6] During the voyage, Arteaga and Bodega y Quadra carefully surveyed Bucareli Bay, then headed north to Port Etches on Hinchinbrook Island.
They entered Prince William Sound and reached a latitude of 61°, the most northern point obtained by the Spanish explorations of Alaska.
They also explored Cook Inlet, and the Kenai Peninsula, where a possession ceremony was performed on August 2, in what today is called Port Chatham.
After these three exploration voyages to Alaska within five years, there were no further Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest until 1788, after the Treaty of Paris ended the war between Spain and Britain.
Delarov also told Narváez that the Russians intended to occupy Nootka Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Due to increasing conflict between Martínez and Haro, the ships broke off contact within three days sailed south separately.
Manuel Quimper captained Princesa Real (the Spanish name for the British vessel Princess Royal, captured by Martínez in 1789).
In 1790, Spanish explorer Salvador Fidalgo took the San Carlos to Alaska, visiting and naming Cordova Bay and Port Valdez in Prince William Sound.
Fidalgo entered Cook Inlet and found the Russian post-Pavlovskaia, the Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin Company post at the mouth of the Kenai River.
Contrary winds made it impossible to sail the small vessel to Nootka, so Quimper went south to San Blas instead.
The King of Spain gave Alejandro Malaspina and José de Bustamante y Guerra command of an around-the-world scientific expedition with two corvettes, the Descubierta and Atrevida.
The expedition was also to search for gold, precious stones, and any American, British, or Russian settlements along the northwest coast.
Spanish scholars made a study of the tribe, recording information on social mores, language, economy, warfare methods, and burial practices.
Artists with the expedition, Tomas de Suria and José Cardero, produced portraits of tribal members and scenes of Tlingit daily life.
In 1792 Dionisio Alcalá Galiano, on the Sutil, and Cayetano Valdés y Flores, on the Mexicana, sailed from San Blas to Nootka Sound, then circumnavigated Vancouver Island.
By 1792 much of the coast had already been visited by European explorers, but some areas had been overlooked, such as the southern part of Prince of Wales Island.
The only Spanish official expedition to Nootka Sound after the conventions with Britain and before the treaty with the United States took place in 1796, when one of the ships from San Blas, the Sutil, made a stopover at the inlet.
There they found Scottish activist Thomas Muir, then an escapee from Botany Bay prison, on board the American fur trading vessel Otter, and carried him to Monterey.
[15][16] In 1957, the Spanish government presented stained glass windows commemorating the Nootka conventions to the church of Friendly Cove as a gift to the Nuu-chah-nulth people.
