British Columbia’s Mexican Connection The Naval Base at San Blas 1768–1810 by Nick Doe Nick Doe, a former ANY of the Spanish water marshes and lakes, and resident of White Rock, ships that visited the then the alluvial plain. From now lives on Gabriola coast of British Co- the air, the land to the north Island. His interest is in M lumbia in the late eighteenth looks as though it has been the history of coastal century sailed from the port of furrowed by the fingers of a BC. San Blas. Nowadays, asked to de- giant’s hand, leaving long, scribe exactly where San Blas is, narrow lagoons running par- one would probably have to allel to the sea. reach for an atlas.1 Yet, this small Two rivers emerge from 1 San Blas is in the state of and congenial Mexican town, the mangrove swamps on ei- Nayarit, Mexico at which is as far south of Victoria ther side of the town: the San 21º32’N, 105º17’W, as Toronto is east, was for forty Cristóbal to the east, and El 3394 km from Victoria BC. years the headquarters of the Pozo (formerly El Arsenal) to 2 The task of a visitador- general in Spanish Spanish navy in the north Pa- the west. Over the years, sur- dominions was to cific. Here, in a belated effort to rounding jungle has been implement royal policies. maintain their claim to all the cleared to make way for pa- They reported directly to lands of the Pacific Rim, the paya, mango, and banana or- the viceroy and were given wide-ranging powers to Spanish established shipbuilding chards, and near-by lagoons appoint officials, proclaim yards, warehouses, and a fortified are used as shrimp ponds. But new regulations, manage harbour. In what the historian development is not rampant. financial matters, etc. They regularly visited provinces Warren Cook has called the Today’s population, although to confer with local flood tide of empire, Spanish growing, is not much greater authorities, inspect, and ships sailed from San Blas to es- than what it was at the height report on conditions, tablish Franciscan missions in of the Spanish activities. The resolve problems, and direct the activities of the Upper California, naval bases at only buildings at the edges of provincial administrators. San Diego and Monterey, and the long, sandy beaches are 3 Spanish cedar was an naval outposts at Neah Bay on palapas (a shelter made of important wood in tropical the Olympic Peninsula and at sticks and palm fronds), America; aromatic, strong, easily worked, resistant to Nootka Sound off the west coast where you can drink coco- dry rot and insect damage, of Vancouver Island. nut juice, eat ceviche or grilled it has now gone from many To reach San Blas from Puerto pescado, and watch Mexican areas where it once grew. Vallarta, you drive north for families enjoying the sun. Some of the vessels built at San Blas were constructed about three hours on the main Little is known of the early “keel to masthead” using Mazatlán highway, and then, just colonial history of San Blas Spanish cedar (Antonio de north of Tepic, take the road that and no structures dating from Pineda). wanders down to the coast that period remain. Some- 4 Other trees known to have been used include the through green, tropical country- time early in the seventeenth rubber tree (Castilla elastica), side. If you go in winter, the century Franciscans founded a soft lightweight wood streets will be dry and dusty, and a mission here and urged the used for construction; the weather pleasant, but in the Nick Doe Indians to give up their semi- mesquite (Prosopis juliflora), Above: Map of the coast of N. America tough and strong, used for summertime it often rains. nomadic hunting life style in posts and furniture; lead The land around San Blas is showing Spanish attempts at controlling the hills to the south and east tree (Leucaena glauca), a hard flat. As you move inland, the bar- the whole of the Pacific coast of North where they were difficult to heavy wood used for rier beaches give way to man- America using ships built and manned reach. Most of those that did by the Naval Department at San Blas. grove swamps, followed by fresh- so quickly succumbed to >>> 4 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 34 N O. 4 Left: Part of a chart of San Blas made in 1822, shortly after Mexican independence. Not a lot has changed. The Spanish naval headquarters on the hill are marked “old monas(tr)y” and the hilltop town as “in ruins”. machinery components; tamarind (Tamarindus indica) for the charcoal used in , Capt. Basil Hall, 1882. Basil Hall, Capt. , making gun-powder; chicharrón (Comocladia ONWAY dodonaea), a shrub with a sap that stains, used for paints and rouge dyes; silk- cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra) for silk stuffing material; and white mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa) for firewood. A local correspondent of the author, Manuel Lomelí, had no difficulty in identifying over 50 species of indigenous trees growing in Port San Blas by Henry Foster, Master Mate of H.M.S. C Master Mate of H.M.S. Henry San Blas by Foster, Port the immediate vicinity of newly introduced diseases, or fell ill as the result José de Gálvez, responded to the crisis in “North- San Blas. 5 Other trees and plants of trading their healthy climate for that of the ern California” by ordering the establishment of used for refreshment and hot and humid river estuaries. There are reports a new naval base to control operations there. medicinal purposes of pearl fishing; salt was shipped from San Blas San Blas was chosen because of its high lati- included oranges, limes, and from Matanchén a few miles to the south; tude and sheltered harbour, its copious supplies tamarinds (candy, preserves, and seasonings), sapodilla Manila galleons bound for Acapulco sometimes of fresh water, salt, and wood, and for its access to (Manilkara zapota) (chewing sheltered here from summer storms; Jesuits sailed the agricultural produce of the interior highlands. gum), cacao (cocoa and for Baja California; and there were, no doubt, Many of the raw materials required for shipbuild- chocolate), bitterbush many unrecorded visits by pirate ships. There, the ing were obtained locally. Spanish cedar (Cedrela (Picramnia pentandra) for treating fever, gumbolimbo history of this remote and sparsely-populated set- odorata) was the most extensively used construc- (Busera simaruba) for tlement might have remained unremarkable were tion timber.3 Other trees, such as guapinole dysentery, and margarita it not for events in the northernmost reaches of (Hymenaea courbaril) whose sap was used to make (common daisy) used as a tonic and possibly as a the Pacific Ocean. varnish, and lignumvitae (Guaiacum sanctum), whose treatment for nightsweats. In 1741, Bering and Chirikov reached Alaska heavy, fine-grained wood was ideal for making 6 A packet boat (Sp. from the Kamchatka Peninsula, and in the ensu- blocks, tackles, and bearings, were also necessary paquebote) was basically a ing years, Russian fur traders, with the active and in good supply.4 Indians from near-by frigate (200 tons) with stowage space in place of encouragement of the Empress Catherine II, rap- Tequepexpan were contracted to gather pitch and heavy armaments. idly expanded their activities into the region. By tar; and vitamin-C-rich guavas, the favoured fruit 7 A late-eighteenth century 1760, all of the Aleutian Islands were supplying for the treatment of scurvy, were gathered from list of missions in California pelts of sea otters, blue foxes, and fur seals, to- the local forests.5 being supplied from San 6 Blas include: Purísima gether with walrus tusks from mainland Alaska, By the mid-1770s, packet boats built in the Concepción, San Antonio to the markets of China. Plans were made to push San Blas shipyards were plying regularly between de Padua, Santa Bárbara, farther south, and the Spanish, who for more than the coast of Nueva Galicia and missions in Alta San Buena Ventura, San a hundred years had been content to leave unex- California,7 carrying essential supplies of food, Carlos, Santa Clara, San Diego, San Francisco, San plored the vast northern territories that they tools, manufactured goods, and barrels of sweet Gabriel Arcángel, San Juan claimed by virtue of having discovered the Pa- wine for celebrating Mass. It was from here that de Capistrano, and San Luis cific, were alarmed. In 1768, the visitador-general,2 Juan José Pérez Hernández sailed the San Blas- Obispo. BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 2001 5 8 A complete list of ships built frigate Santiago north to the Queen Char- The chapel lower down the slope was built built at San Blas known to lotte Islands and Nootka Sound in 1774, to be- with the same heavy stones as the contaduría. It is have visited British Columbia in the eighteenth come the first European to have visited the na- a strangely cold ruin—cold both physically and century includes the tive peoples of British Columbia. It was from here spiritually. Its wooden roof too has gone, although brigantine Activa (213 tons), that Esteban José Martínez sailed to Alaska in 1788 the narrow, grey-black stone arches, that once the frigates Princesa (189 to meet the Russian intruders along the shores supported it still span the ten-metre wide nave.11 tons) and Santiago (225 tons), and the schooners of the “Spanish lake” as the Pacific was some- After independence, the bronze bells, at least one Sutil and Mexicana times called. And it was from here, in 1792, that of them cracked, were taken down to the town, (46 tons).