Bodega y Quadra, Juan Francisco de la

BODEGA Y QUADRA, Juan Francisco de la, naval explorer (b 22 May 1744, Lima, Peru; d 26 Mar 1794, Mexico City). After early education in Lima, he entered the Naval Academy in Cádiz and graduated as a midshipman in 1767. He arrived in New Spain (Mexico) in 1774 among other young officers selected and trained for Pacific Northwest Coast exploration. From San Blas in 1775 he made an epic voyage to Alaska in the tiny schooner Sonora; he reached Kruzov Island and charted the first realistic delineation of the coast to 58°. In 1779, in the Favorita, he explored the entrances to Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet and reached Kodiak Island. He returned from Spain to the Pacific in 1789 as commandant of the San Blas naval department. He assisted the MALASPINA expedition and planned and managed other voyages searching for the Northwest Passage. In 1792, serving in a diplomatic role as Spanish commissioner, he met with George VANCOUVER at Friendly Cove in an attempt to settle the terms of the Nootka Convention under which Spain had agreed to cede to England its establishment at NOOTKA (see NOOTKA SOUND CONTROVERSY). He was a generous host, entertaining aboriginal leaders and fur traders in the commandant's house. Bodega Bay in California and QUADRA ISLAND in BC are named for him. See also NUU-CHAH-NULTH; SPANISH EXPLORATION.
by Freeman Tovell