Spanish Exploration In The North Pacific And Its Effect On Alaska Place Names Item Type Thesis Authors Luna, Albert Gregory Download date 05/10/2021 11:44:10 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8541 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. 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SPANISH EXPLORATION IN THE NORTH PACIFIC AND ITS EFFECT ON ALASKA PLACE NAMES THESIS Presented to the Faculty Of the University of Alaska Fairbanks In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Albert Gregory Luna, B.A. Fairbanks, Alaska May 2000 © 2000 Albert Gregory Luna Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number 1398892 Copyright 2000 by Luna, Albert Gregory All rights reserved. __ ® UMI UMI Microform 1398892 Copyright 2000 by Beil & Howell Information and Learning Company. Ail rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SPANISH EXPLORATION IN THE NORTH PACIFIC AND ITS EFFECT ON ALASKA PLACE NAMES By Albert Gregory Luna RECOMMENDED: ou n -n Alexandra Fitts Richard Pierce Marvin Falk. Advisory Committee Chair Juclim Kleinfeld, Director, Northern Studies APPROVED: .iberafT^r, College of LibeTafTvrts.iberafT^r, Dean of the Graduate School 3 Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Precipitated by the rapid advance of Russian fur hunters across the Aleutian Islands, the Spanish government awoke from its two hundred-year complacent slumber to define and defend its northern border. In all, seven expeditions crossed 54°40’N in the years between 1774 and 1792. Though not obvious today, these voyages left a vestigial mark on the state’s topynomy along the Gulf of Alaska. From the town of Valdez to Bucareli Bay, these names are remains of a territorial rivalry in which the Spanish lost. Refusal to publish its findings, lack of private entrepreneurs, and the inability of Spain to assess Alaska for its inherent value all guaranteed that the only thing Spanish in the state would be a scattering of place names. However, the visitation and subsequent maneuvering to possess Alaska among the Russians, British, and English in this crucial period is a neglected yet fascinating area of Alaskan history. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE NO. LIST OF TABLES vi PREFACE vii INTRODUCTION 01 CHAPTER I. Collision in the Americas 08 A. The Opponents 08 B. Background to Spanish Activity 10 C. Fantastic Maps and Voyages 17 D. A Background to North Pacific Rivalry 21 II. The Bucareli Expeditions of 1774 and 1775 27 A. Russian Specter 27 B. The Visionary Triumvirate 29 C. San Bias and the Sacred Expedition the California 31 D. 54°40’ or Failure? 33 E. The Little Ship That Could 42 III. How Spain Became ‘Cook’ed 54 A. Preparations and Postponements 54 B. Cook in Alaska-1778 59 IV. The Hunt for Cook: Arteaga in Alaska, 1779 66 V. War, Cutbacks, and “Fur Rush,” 1779-1787 82 A. Purging of San Bias 82 B. The Interlopers 84 C. La Perouse: France on the Northwest Coast 85 D. The Russian Bear Growls, 1774-1788 88 VI. The Machismo of Martinez, 1788 93 A. Arguments in Alaska 93 B. Accusations and Actuation 107 C. The Nootka Imbroglio 110 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V VII. Cordova and Valdez-1790 113 A. Infusion of New Blood 113 B. Fidalgo in Alaska 115 VIII. The Uncovering of the Straits 127 A. MaJaspina and Maldonado 127 B. The Rendezvous of Bodega and Vancouver: The Limits Treaty of 1792 138 C. The Search for Fonte’s Strait 139 D. The Spanish Redeemer 145 E. Spanish Ebb 155 CONCLUSION 161 APPENDIX I: Place Names Given By Spanish Explorers 169 APPENDIX II: General Spanish Place Names 197 APPENDIX HI: Obsolete Place Names 216 APPENDIX IV: Document of Possession Taken In Cordova Bay by Salvador Fidalgo in 1790 233 APPENDIX V: Nationality of Vessels Visiting the Northwest Coast, 1774-1819 237 APPENDIX VI: Color Maps 23 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 255 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of Tables Page Number Table 1 Types of Place Names 167 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Preface and Acknowledgments Before my arrival to Fairbanks in the summer o f 1997 I was completely unacquainted with Spanish activity in the Pacific Far North. As a child I would examine map upon map of different parts of the world, but never did the question of Spanish place names in Alaska enter my mind. With the Valdez oil tanker accident in 1989 I began to question why a town in Alaska would possess a Spanish name. I wondered, “Was it named after a gold miner with that last name?” Washington’s Juan de Fuca Strait was Spanish, that much I knew, but surely, no Spanish explorers could have possibly reached the high latitudes. Upon entering the University of Alaska I became aware of other Spanish- sounding place names, such as Malaspina Glacier, Cordova, Alaska, and Revillagigedo Island. There a professor suggested that I investigate this seeming mystery and possibly write my thesis on it. Due to my brief interest in the Russian Great Northern Expedition, I declined. However, after realizing that I was illiterate in Russian yet literate in Spanish, I changed my course to the south, namely to New Spain. A children’s book first introduced me to the adventures of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, the pioneering explorer and brilliant mapmaker of the North Pacific Coast. I augmented my reading with secondary, and later primary sources. Luckily, the Rasmuson Library contained many of the explorers’ journals and maps. Midway through the Northern Studies program, I decided to alter my thesis. Not only would I chronicle the seven Alaskan expeditions, but I also would enumerate every Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Spanish place name in the entire state. Not only might this prove useful to me, but to future scholars as well. During the winter of 1998-99 Donald Orth’sDictionary o f Alaska Place Names became my pillow and place mat. This obscenely large book contains all Alaska place names, no matter the size. Page by page I perused the book looking for Spanish words. Then I stumbled upon the dilemma that not all Spanish place names in the state are linked directly to actual Spanish explorations. How could I account for locations in the Seward Peninsula? I therefore decided to separate all the Spanish names into three categories: 1) Place names given by Spanish explorers, 2) General Spanish Place Names, and 3) Obsolete Place Names. Certain general place names I omitted from my lists, namely El Dorado and Bonanza, due to their loose link to actual Spanish words and their frequency. Spanish exploration and its legacy to Alaska is an important aspect of Alaskan history that is denied or overlooked. Various scholars in the world have expounded upon Spanish activity in the North Pacific, but more often than not, they concentrate on the Nootka Sound Controversy and relegate the Alaskan explorations to nothing more than a chapter at most. I have not encountered any book that deals solely with Spanish exploration above 54°40’N, and for this reason I have written this thesis. I hope that my list, although not perfect, will benefit future University of Alaska students in their inquiries of Spanish activity in the Far North. I also have written this thesis to benefit Hispanic children who are either vaguely familiar with or completely unaware of Spanish activity in Alaska. With few Hispanic role models in America today, and those that do exist, not mentioned or neglected in the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ix classrooms, these children should take heart of the tenacity and perseverance of these Latin explorers over two-hundred years ago. All Alaskan children, regardless of race, should be aware, and in turn take pride, in the activities of colonial powers that vied for their state.