In early December, he initiated a stream of orders and detailed instructions to Bodega, advising him that the king desired the Nootka Sound establishment sustained and for this purpose had selected him and his companions to accomplish this under the viceroy’s orders. The new viceroy found himself with two matters arising from Martinez’s actions: the release of Colnett along with his men and his ships and the Royal Order of April 14, 1789, to maintain the Nootka Sound establishment with “honour and firmness.” With respect to Nootka Sound, and still unaware that Martinez had actually left Nootka Sound, Revillagigedo proposed to resupply it using the two captured English ships. He said nothing about his order to Martinez to abandon Nootka Sound and return to San Blas.įlores and Revillagigedo finally met in Mexico City, and Revillagigedo assumed control on October 17. Flores wrote Revillagigedo on August 27, that the Princes Royal, commanded by Jose Maria Narváez, had arrived in San Blas.
#Nootka island ship free
Flores responded that the Argonaut would be made ready to sail and that the First Free Company of the Catalonian Volunteers stationed in Guadalajara had been told to prepare to move to San Blas for onward transportation to Nootka Sound. Revillagigedo replied that nothing further should be done until instructions were received from Madrid. He urged the new viceroy to relieve him as quickly as possible, not wanting to get involved in the problem. Flores added that those ships had sailed from Macao to take possession of Nootka Sound for the king of England, and noted that the two ships and their crews were on their way to San Blas. Shortly after arriving, Revillagigedo received a letter from former viceroy Flores informing him that Martinez at Nootka Sound had seized two English ships, the Argonaut and the Princess Royal. Revillagigedo, Bodega, and his companions reached Veracruz on August 8, 1789. They sailed to New Spain, with a new viceroy, Juan Vicente de Guemes Pacheco de Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, Conde de Revillagigedo, accompanying them. He chose Manuel Quimper, Ramón Saavedra Guiráldez y Ordóñez, Francisco de Eliza, Salvador Fidalgo y Lopegarcía, Jacinto Caamaño Moraleja, and Salvador Menéndez Valdés. The next month the king instructed him to select six junior officers to serve under his orders. In late March 1789, Juan Francisco Bodega y Quadra, who was then back in Spain, was informed of his appointment as commandant of the Naval Department of San Blas. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives at College Park.īecause of Spain’s growing concerns about its sovereignty over the Pacific Northwest in 17, the Spanish Government decided to strengthen its naval position at San Blas, in order to mount new expeditions to the Pacific Northwest.
#Nootka island ship series
Part II of the blog series 225 Years Ago: Spanish Explorations of the Pacific Northwest and the First Spanish Settlement in Washington State, Núñez Gaona (Neah Bay), 1792
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