FRANCISCO MUNOZ Y SAN CLEMENTE AND HIS 'REFLECTIONS ON THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS OF NEW HOLLAND' ROBERT J.KING THE significance of Francisco Munoz y San Clemente's 'Reflexiones sobre Ios establecimientos Ingleses de la Nueva-Holanda' lies in the influence it had in causing the politico-scientific expedition to the Pacific led by Alexandro Malaspina to include in its itinerary a visit to the new English colony in New South Wales (see figs, i, 2). The 'Refiexiones' presented irrefutable reasons for Spain to send her own observers to obtain first-hand knowledge of the Botany Bay colony. Munoz came from a distinguished family. sHis father was Gonzalo Munoz de Torres, a native of Ecija, in Andalusia, who had held the appointments of Regent of the Council of Navarre and interim Viceroy of the Kingdom of Navarre. His mother was Joaquina de San Clemente y Montera, a native of Alfaro, in Navarre. His brother, Gonzalo, an officer of the ehte Real Compafiia de Guardias Marinas, died in January 1780 of wounds received during the Battle of Cape St Vincent with the British fleet commanded by Sir George Rodney. Francisco began his career in 1760, as a graduate of the Colegio Militar de Segovia, where he had studied mathematics, algebra, geometry and physics, civil engineering, fortification and artillery. He was admitted as sub-lieutenant to the Real Cuerpo de Artilleri'a, and from there transferred to the Royal Navy with the rank of alferez de fregata (midshipman). He first saw service in the Oriente in the expedition against Algiers in 1775. He subsequently served on board the frigate Margarita in the squadron under the command of Antonio de Arce, and during the summer of 1776 on the Velasco. He was then appointed to the Guardias Marinas at Cartagena, where the commander put him in charge of teaching cosmography, navigation and naval tactics. In 1778 he was appointed to the Real Compania de Guardias Marinas de Cadiz where, if he had not already done so, he would have made the acquaintance of Alexandro Malaspina. In June 1779 Spain joined with France against Britain in supporting the Americans in their War of Independence. Munoz served in the war against Britain on the Rayo, which formed part of the squadron under the command of Luis de Cordoba. In 1782 he was promoted to the rank of capitdn de fregata. From 1782 to 1786 he was interim officer commanding the Compafiia de Guardias Marinas de Cadiz. In August 1784 he was appointed second 55 in command of the Santa Lucia which, under the command of Vicente Tofino, undertook a hydrographical survey which contributed to the compilation of the Atlas Maritimo de Espana, published in 1789. On 12 April 1785, the re-establishment of the Royal Philippines Company (which had been first set up in the reign of Philip V) was publicly announced in Madrid: The King has at last consented to the re-establishment of the Manilla Company (at the request of the merchants) which has been abolished for near 90 years; and the Prince of Asturias, heir to the Crown, is to be the patron of it. A very valuable branch of commerce will be regained by this means, to which there is no other natural impediment than the extreme distance of these islands from Europe.^ To explore the best direct route to the Philippines from Spain (as opposed to the traditional Acapulco-Manila galleon route), it was determined to send two ships under charter to the Royal Philippines Company by the alternative Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope routes. Munoz was appointed to command of the frigate Aguila Imperial in August 1785; Alexandro Malaspina was nominated to command of the Placeres at the same time, but could not take up his command on account of illness.^ The Aguila Imperial was to go by the Cape of Good Hope route, and the Placeres by Cape Horn. Malaspina, having recovered, was nominated to command of the Astrea in June 1786 (instead of the Placeres), and undertook the voyage to the Philippines for the Company, going out by the Cape Horn route and returning to Spain by the Cape of Good Hope (without, however, stopping at Cape Town), arriving at Cadiz in May 1788.^ The Aguila Imperial sailed for the Philippines under the command of Munoz, departing Cadiz in January 1786 and arriving at Manila on 8 August of that year. She sailed on the return voyage to Spain from Manila on 12 January 1787 and arrived at Cadiz on 17 March 1788. Both the outward and return voyages were by the Cape of Good Hope.'^ Shortly after his return he was given leave to go to Madrid to attend to family affairs (his mother had died just after the Aguila Imperial had sailed from Cadiz).^ His presence in Madrid, and his friendship with Malaspina, were referred to in a letter which Malaspina wrote to an English friend from Cadiz on 13 July 1789: 'Munoz and the amiable Greppi are yet in Madrid.'^ It was during this period that he wrote and submitted his 'Reflexiones sobre Ios establecimientos Ingleses de la Nueva-Holanda': it is dated San Ildefonso, 20 September 1788. In it, he wrote: 'The grave dangers which in time our commerce will experience because of their proximity to South America and the Philippines oblige us to consider the [English] settlements' (f. iv). In other words, he wrote it on his own initiative, and not in response to an order or invitation. The treatise considered the advantages which New Holland offered for settlements to the English, the sea lines of communication between the new colony and India, China, the Philippines and South America; and indicated the dangers which it posed to the Spanish possessions both in peace time from the development of a contraband commerce, and in war time as a base for British naval 56 fig. I. 'Vista de la Colonia Ynglesa de Sydney en la Nueva Gales Meridional', by Fernando Brambila, the artist on Malaspina's expedition: Madrid, Museo Naval, MS. 1724-15. By courtesy of the Museo Naval, Madrid 2. A variant by Brambila of Fig. i: BL, K. Top. CXXIV (supplement) 45 57 operations. He referred (f. 5r) to the newspaper accounts which *have frequently announced to us new shipments of Colonists' to Botany Bay.' Comment on the Botany Bay project in the British press, and in pamphlets and books pubhshed in Britain, could not but have aroused Spanish curiosity and suspicions. The Daily Universal Register for 12 October 1786 observed: After all that has been said, either in ridicule or animadversion on the measure of sending the convicts to Botany Bay, it is a serious truth, that in case of a future war with Spain or Holland, a settlement there must be attended with very important advantages. The spice islands, the possessions which the Dutch regard with a very jealous eye, and the envied Spanish territory of Mexico and Peru, would each be exposed from [them to] successful incursion. An article in the General Advertiser of the same date said: The central situation which new South Wales, in which Botany Bay is situated, holds in the globe, cannot fail of giving it a very commanding influence in the policy of Europe. It extends from 44 to 10 South lat. and from no to 154 long. - a month's sail from the Cape of Good Hope; five weeks from Madras; the same from Canton in China; very near the Moluccas; less than a month's run from Batavia; and lastly within a fortnight's sail of New Zealand, which place is covered with timber, even to the water edge, of such an enormous size and height, that a single tree would be much too large for a mast of a first rate man of war. When this colony from England is established, if we should ever be at war with Holland or Spain we might very powerfully annoy either State from the new settlement. We might, with equal safety and expedition, make naval incursions into Java, and the other Dutch settlements, or invade the coast of Spanish America, and intercept the Manilla ships. Thus this check would, in time of war, make it a very important object, when we view it in the chart of the world with a political eye. This report was an unacknowledged quote from the memorial to the British Government by James Matra, who had proposed since 1783 the formation of a colony at Botany Bay. The same extracts from Matra's proposal appeared in The General Evening Post of 10-12 October, and in other London newspapers on 13 October 1786: The London Chronicle; The Morning Chronicle; The Whitehall Evening Post; The Mormng Post; and in The Daily Universal Register on 14 October 1786. The Spanish Ambassador to London, Bernardo del Campo, immediately forwarded a translation of this passage, and others drawn from Matra's memorial referring to the advantages of a settlement in New South Wales, to Prime Minister Florida Blanca in Madrid.^ An indication of the wide interest the Botany Bay scheme attracted throughout Europe is the quoting of this passage and other newspaper reports by Pierre Edouard Lemontey in his prize-winning 'Eloge de Jacques Cook', given in Marseilles on 29 August 1789.^ The Gaceta de Madrid of 13 and 20 October, and 14 November 1786 carried reports from the English press on the projected colony. Matra's patron and co-sponsor (together with Sir Joseph Banks) of the Botany Bay project. Captain Sir George Young, had had his own memorial published as a pamphlet in April 1785, at a time when the House of Commons Select Committee on the 58 Transportation of Felons was holding hearings on suitable locations for a convict colony.