Plano del Estrecho de Juan de Fuca

This 1792 map shows the extent to which the Pacific Northwest coast had been mapped by Spanish and British explorers since James Cook’s first foray into the region in 1778. For two decades beginning in 1774, Spanish expeditions regularly traveled up the Northwest coast as far as Alaska on voyages both politically and scientifically driven. Explorers such as Juan Pérez (1774), Esteban Martínez (1788) Alejandro Malaspina (1791), and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (1792), led expeditions that were part of Spain’s last attempt to expand its global empire. Toward that end, Spain made attempts to establish two garrisons in the Northwest. The first, Fort San Miguel, was founded at Nootka Sound by Martínez in 1789. Its presence, and the aggressiveness of its founder, almost led to a war with Britain when Martinez seized British land, buildings, and ships in an attempt to keep Nootka in Spanish control. When the resulting “Nootka Sound Controversy” was settled in 1792, it signaled the end of Spanish aspirations in the Northwest. Spain abandoned the region and concentrated instead on holding their colonies to the south. The other garrison, founded by Salvador Fidalgo in 1792, was little more than a few basic buildings at Nunez Gaona (Neah Bay) when it was abandoned at about the same time as the “Nootka Sound Controversy” was settled.

In ordering Malaspina to abandon his five-year around-the-world scientific expedition to head to Alaska to seek evidence of a Northwest Passage, King Carlos III sought to strengthen Spain’s increasingly tenuous claims to the Northwest Coast. Besides seeking the fabled water route that connected the Pacific to the Atlantic, Malaspina was also asked to determine British and Russian strength in the North Pacific, report on the state of affairs at Martinez’s fort at Nootka, and accumulate scientific and geographical data that would support Spain’s claims to the region. The expedition fared better in meeting its scientific goals than it did in its political ones.

The eighteenth-century Spanish presence in the Northwest is still evident in some of the surviving place names in both Puget Sound and on Vancouver Island. The Strait of Juan de Fuca, for example, was named for a Greek navigator, Apostolos Valerianos (known in Spain as Juan de Fuca) who claimed to have sailed the region around 1592 in search of a the Northwest Passage. The San Juan Islands, Port Angeles (Puerto de los Angeles), and Rosario Strait are but a few of the existing geographical names that testify to Spain’s attempt to claim the region as part of her North American Empire. In Oregon, too, the Spanish influence is occasionally seen in names like Heceta Head (named for explorer Bruno de Hezeta) and Cape Sebastian (named for Saint Sebastian by Spanish navigator Sebastián Vizcaíno in 1603).

Further Reading:
Haycox, Stephen, James Barnett and Caedmon Liburd, eds. Enlightenment and Exploration in the North Pacific, 1741-1805. Seattle: 1997.

Moziño, José Mariano. Noticias de Nutka: An Account of Nootka Sound in 1792. Seattle: 1970.

Kendrick, John and Robin Inglis. Enlightened Voyages: Malaspina and Galiano on the Northwest Coast, 1791-1792. Vancouver, B.C.: 1991.

Andrew, David. The Voyage of Alejandro Malaspina to the Pacific, 1789-1794. London: 2000.

Written by Dane Bevan, © Oregon Historical Society, 2004.