Riches for the Geography of America and Spain':' Felipe Bauza and His Topographical Collections, 1789-1848

'RICHES FOR THE GEOGRAPHY OF AMERICA AND SPAIN':' FELIPE BAUZA AND HIS TOPOGRAPHICAL COLLECTIONS, 1789-1848 PETER BARBER THE British Library's Department of Manuscripts possesses a wealth of material relating to the history and culture of Spain and its colonies.^ This includes one of the largest collections of maps and official papers on colonial Latin America outside the Iberian peninsula (now Add. MSS. 17556-676). Commonly known as the 'Bauza Collection', its story before December 1848, when it was acquired by the British Museum, throws light on some of the motives for map collecting and on the hazards to which collections of political and geographical papers were exposed in the last century. Central to an understanding of the nature of the collection is the person of Felipe Bauza y Canas, one-time head of the Spanish Hydrographic Office (Direccion de Hidrografia)^ (fig. i). Born in Palma, Majorca, on 17 February 1764,"^ of relatively humble parentage, he was educated in the nautical college at Cartagena, leaving, in 1779, as a qualified pilot. In tbe following years he found bimself actively involved in the great siege of Gibraltar (1779-82), the capture of Port Mahon on Minorca from the British, and a campaign against the Moors in 1783-4. From 1785 onwards he trained as a hydrographer under Vincente Tofifio, perhaps the most distinguished Spanish cartographer of the day. Tofino was engaged in the preparation of his Atlas Maritimo Espanol^ and Bauza assisted him in the charting of Spain's Mediterranean coastline. In January 1787 Bauza was created Professor of Fortification and Drawing at the Naval College (Academia de Guardia- marinas) of Cadiz. It was a sign of the esteem in which be was already held. This was also reflected in his steady promotion, first through the ranks of the pilots' corps and then—a particular honour for someone of his birtb—through the ranks of the navy, until in 1819 he was created capitdn de navio. In 1789 he received perhaps the most fiattering testimonial to his abilities. The Italian-born sailor and scientist, Alessandro Malaspina (1754-1810) insisted, in face of opposition, not least from Bauza himself, who was afraid of losing his position in Cadiz, on selecting him as director of charts, plans, and drawings for his expedition to the Americas, Oceania and Australasia. One of the principal objectives of the expedition, which was modelled on the great voyages of Cook and La Perouse, was to be the accurate mapping, for the first time, of Spanish America, the Philippines, and the islands of the Pacific. Bauza's contribution was, thus, central. During the course of the voyage which lasted from July 1789 to September 1794, Bauza assembled a corpus of material for charts of the coastline of South America, published in part 28 Fig. I. Felipe Bauza y Canas. Copied from a portrait by Lopez. From J. M. Bover de Rossello, R. Medel, Varones ilustres de Mallorca (Palma de Mallorca, 1847) between 1797 and 1807, which served as the basis for Spanish mapping of the region for the remainder of the nineteenth century. On the return journey ill health compelled him and another cartographer, Jose de Espinosa y Tello (1763-1815), to cross South America by land from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires in 1793 rather than endure the rigours of the passage of the Straits of Magellan. The result was the first relatively accurate map of the Andes and the Pampas in the Carta esferica de la parte interior de la America Meridional^ which was finally published in 1810.^ Malaspina fell into disgrace as the result of a court intrigue in 1795. Bauza was not implicated though he spent more than half a year as a prisoner in Gibraltar following the capture of his frigate by the British in October^ 1796. In August 1797 he was appointed deputy head of the newly founded Direccion de Hidrografia under Espinosa, whom he succeeded in 1815. Throughout this period he supervised the publication of the charts stemming from the Malaspina expedition, supplied Wellington and General Graham (later Lord Lyndenoch) with reliable maps of Spain during the Peninsular War,^ and twice (1808, 1812) saved the holdings of the Deposito Hidrografico from seizure by the French by transporting them in carts from Madrid to Seville and Cadiz. In these years his reputation as a cartographer led to official commissions for maps of the Franco-Spanish frontier (1808) and of Spain itself (i 820-1) and to him being consulted by the Spanish government on the measures necessary for the security of Paraguay and the Rio de la Plata. Foreign honours also came his way in the form of membership of several learned societies, including the Royal Society of London (1819), and the bestowal of the Russian Cross of St Vladimir (fourth class) in 1816. It was at the turn of the century that he began assembling maps and papers for his own purposes.^ From the start this was no dilettante collection, but one intended to provide Bauza with the information necessary to achieve what had become his principal ambition: the compilation of atlases containing definitive maps of Spain^ and of Latin America, which would sweep away the cartographic misconceptions and fables that had previously held sway (fig. 2). Indeed, as far as Spanish America was concerned, he felt this activity to be a patriotic duty. ^° As be explained in a paper on the geography of South America that was first presented in July 1814, toca a la Espana y a los Espanoles el manifestar a su nacion, a la Europa y al orbe entero el verdadero estado de la Geografia de America. La posesion de mas de tres siglos, las relaciones de familias con la Metropoli y la curiositad de conocer dilatadas regiones . y tantas y tan numerosas naciones tan distintas en color como en cosrumbres, todo les convida a ejecutarlo. [It is up to Spain and the Spaniards to demonstrate the truth about the geography of America to their own nation, to Europe, and to the whole world. More than three centuries of ownership, family ties with the metropolis, curiosity about distant regions . and many numerous peoples so different in colour and customs, make it fitting to do so.]^^ Given tbis ambition it is not surprising that, far from leaving his maps in pristine condition, as a connoisseur collector might have done, Bauza extensively annotated many 30 -F( -a 4-31 y CJ •J:.^ c rt />?^^ -_J \ J-i rt "^ ^Cr-cr-^' >i V, /' /-" ;H H c rt C 'rt 4-> o 1 ^ OO -- O" - C^ O hH ^<\''^-»^ C •^,' X. .iv"s-V. ^ ^ /''^'aau of them with calculations of latitude and longitude, in order to establish the true positions of the places shown (fig. 3). In the pursuit of his objectives he was well served by the drafts for the maps and charts that he had executed in the course of the Malaspina expedition and during his time with Tofino. His official position gave him access to an enormous amount of relevant material and a particular boon came in 1817 when Thaddaus Hanke left him a large part of his collections. ^2 Hanke, the official naturalist on the Malaspina expedition, had settled in Cochamba (now in Bolivia) in 1794 and over the following decades had produced some of the earliest accurate maps of that region." There had, however, been frustrations, particularly in the case of Brazil. Even the solicitations of his friend, Henry Vassal Fox, 3rd Baron Holland, who spent much of the Napoleonic period in Spain, had only limited success in persuading the Portuguese government to divulge any of the fruits of their mapping, which remained a closely guarded secret of state until well into the second decade of the nineteenth century. Bauza had, therefore, to rely almost entirely on a few inadequate written accounts for this vast area.^^ In 1822 Bauza was elected to the Cortes as a liberal, representing the area of his birth. In the following year Ferdinand VII, with the support of a French army, revoked the liberal constitution of 1820 and dissolved the Cortes. Bauza had to flee to England under sentence of death, abandonando este patria seducida por Ios que se llaman ministros del altar y por la mas negra perfidia de Ios potentados de Europa [abandoning this country, seduced by those who refer to themselves as ministers of the altar, and the blackest perfidy of the European powers].^^ His first thought was to send his collections to Holland House, Lord Holland's London home, for safekeeping, but events overtook him and he was compelled to deposit them with the British consul in Cadiz. There they were safe—unlike all his other possessions which, he complained, were sequestered even down to his wife and daughters' underwear. By the autumn Bauza had managed to escape to Gibraltar, where he persuaded the authorities to send the frigate Tribune to Cadiz to rescue his collections and his son Felipe (b. 1802)—leaving his wife and two daughters in Madrid. In order to achieve this rescue operation Bauza had to play on the importance of his papers. Impressed, his friends in Gibraltar wrote to John Barrow, the distinguished explorer who was Second Permanent Secretary to the Admiralty, suggesting that the Admiralty should purchase them. This was soon to cause trouble, but in the short term it facilitated matters. The ten chests, containing the bulk of the collections, were addressed to the Admiralty in order, as Bauza fervently hoped, to circumvent the British customs and the danger that the maps and papers would be disturbed and possibly dispersed should they be opened.

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