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‗That Immense and Dangerous Sea‘: Spanish Imperial Policy and Power During the Exploration of the Salish Sea, 1790-1791. by Devon Drury BA, University of Victoria, 2007 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of History Devon Drury, 2010 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee ‗That Immense and Dangerous Sea‘: Spanish Imperial Policy and Power During the Exploration of the Salish Sea, 1790-1791. by Devon Drury BA, University of Victoria, 2007 Supervisory Committee Dr. John Lutz, Department of History Supervisor Dr. Eric W. Sager, Department of History Departmental Member Dr. Patrick A. Dunae, Department of History Departmental Member iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Dr. John Lutz, Department of History Supervisor Dr. Eric W. Sager, Department of History Departmental Member Dr. Patrick A. Dunae, Department of History Departmental Member In the years between 1789 and 1792 the shores of what is now British Columbia were opened to European scrutiny by a series of mostly Spanish expeditions. As the coastline was charted and explored by agents of European empires, the Pacific Northwest captured the attention of Europe. In order to carry out these explorations the Spanish relied on what turned out to be an experiment in ‗gentle‘ imperialism that depended on the support of the indigenous ―colonized‖. This thesis examines how the Spanish envisioned their imperial space on the Northwest Coast and particularly how that space was shaped through the exploration of the Salish Sea. A close examination of the Spanish explorations of 1790-91 opens a window on this distinctive Spanish imperialism, on Aboriginal culture and politics in this era, and on the cartographic and cultural mapping of this the centre of gravity of modern British Columbia. iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ...................................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: An Imperial Context for the Spanish Presence on the Northwest Coast ......... 16 Chapter 2: Exploration and Power in the Strait of Juan de Fuca ...................................... 35 Chapter 3: Into the Unknown; Spain and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, 1790 ...................... 58 Chapter 4: Indigenous Territory and the Exploration of Clayoquot and Barkley Sounds ......................................................................................................................................... 113 Chapter 5: Spain and the Strait of Georgia, 1791 ........................................................... 139 Conclusion: ..................................................................................................................... 185 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 200 Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 210 Introduction ―I hope that one day, in the not too distant future, but maybe after I am dead, someone will read what I have written and be a little wiser about our roots, about how we came to be here, how this incredible hodge-podge of nations came to be welded into what today we call British Columbia‖. -John Crosse, 1995.1 In April of 1596, at a café in Venice Italy, three men sat conversing in broken Italian and Spanish, while excitedly pointing to a rudimentary chart of the Pacific Ocean. The names of the three men were: Tomas Douglas, a British navigator employed by a Venetian shipping company, John Lok, a British merchant-adventurer, who had famously been one of the financiers of Forbisher‘s expeditions to the eastern Arctic in 1576, 1577, and 1578, and Juan de Fuca, otherwise known as Apóstolos Valerianos, a Greek born ship‘s pilot, who had recently returned from almost 40 years service in the Spanish navy mostly in the Pacific Ocean. The three men were discussing Fuca‘s claim that in 1592, Fuca had sailed from Acapulco commanding two small vessels, and sailing North and Northwest had come to a large opening between 47o and 48o North latitude.2 At the entrance to this opening, Fuca noted a large, distinguished, spired rock, and he proceeded to travel in this waterway for twenty days. While in this waterway, Fuca passed different islands, densely populated by people clad in beast skins, until he came to a sea which was larger than the Strait he had entered. Assuming that he had found the Northwest Passage, and unable to defend his 1 UBC Special Collections, John Crosse Fonds: Box 2 File 3. 2 The actual entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca is located between 48o 25‘ and 48o 38‘ 2 ships against the large number of indigenous people who resisted his presence, Fuca felt he had accomplished the objectives of his mission. Fuca turned around and returned to Mexico, expecting to be rewarded for his accomplishment. When Fuca arrived in Mexico, he was warmly received by the ruling Viceroy, but no significant reward was forthcoming. So Fuca made his way to Spain, in the hopes that there the King would give him some reward for his service, but again Fuca was denied satisfactory compensation. Frustrated, Fuca left Spain without permission and made his way to Italy in order to make it home to his native Greece, so that he could essentially retire. While in Italy, Fuca met Douglas, who introduced him to Lok. During their conversation Fuca made it known to Lok that the reason he had not been rewarded for his discovery of a northern strait, was that Spain was under the impression that England had given up its hope of finding a Northwest Passage, and there was no worry in Mexico about Englishmen entering the Pacific through a northern route. Fuca proposed that if the Queen of England would repay him the monies that had been taken from him by the pirate Thomas Cavendish, he would be willing to lead an expedition to the strait he had discovered and give England a northern entrance into the Pacific.3 In the end, Lok could not generate any excitement, or more importantly, money, in England over Fuca‘s claim, and nothing came of their meeting. Fuca died in 1602 on his native island of Kefalonia, and Lok‘s account of their meeting was published in 1625 by Samuel Purchas, in Purchas His Pilgrims. 3 Warren Cook, Flood Tide of Empire Spain and the Pacific Northwest, 1543-1819 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973), 22-29, 539-543. 3 For over two centuries Fuca‘s tale tantalized the minds of European geographers and explorers. James Cook, in 1778, looked for the Strait of Juan de Fuca while sailing along the Northwest Coast, but missed the opening due to bad weather. Then, in 1786, Charles Barkley and his wife Francis, while trading along the coast of Vancouver Island, found the entrance to the long fabled Strait, and named it after the man they felt was the original discoverer, Juan de Fuca. Despite this discovery, there was little impetus for the early fur traders on the Northwest Coast to explore a passageway they considered dangerous and lacking in sea otter skins. It was not until the Spanish established themselves on the coast in 1789, with the objective of sovereignty instead of trade, the Strait of Juan de Fuca became the center of four years of trade and exploration within its waters. There is a considerable lack of knowledge surrounding Spain‘s efforts to explore and chart Vancouver Island and the Salish Sea, the large body of water encompassing the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Georgia Strait, and Puget Sound.4 Each summer from 1789 until 1792 the Salish Sea region was explored by ships and sailors in the service of Spain. Very little is known about these explorations: the context for them, how they were carried out, where they went, and how they interacted with indigenous groups. The lack of knowledge surrounding this subject is not just confined to the general public. Historians, particularly English speaking ones, have also had difficulty properly portraying the Spanish efforts in the Salish Sea. 4 The name ―Salish Sea‖ was adoped by governments on both sides of the international border in January 2009. Much like the term ―Cascadia,‖ for the Northwest region, the adoption of a sinlge name for the transnational body of water was done in the hopes of fostering and recognizing the shared envrioment that exsisted long before the international border. 4 There are many such examples of these difficulties. A recent one is Keith Carlson‘s Sto:lo Coast Salish Historical Atlas, which includes a plate on ―Voyages of Scientific Exploration, Geographic Discovery and Colonial Expansion: The First Xwelitem, 1790-1792‖. This plate attempts to trace the explorations of Quimper, Eliza/Narváez, Galiano/Valdés, and Vancouver, while highlighting their interactions with the Salish people of the straits. Unfortunately Dr. Carlson was not able to locate Wagner‘s Spanish Explorations in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and states erroneously that there