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Description

Fine example of Juan Pantoja's map of San Diego Bay, from the atlas to accompany Espinosa y Tello's account of the final Spanish exploration along the West Coast of North America, undetertaken simultaneously with the voyage of Geoge Vancouver.

The map of San Diego is drawn from a manuscript map by Juan Pantoja y Arriaga, the first Spanish survey of San Diego Bay. Pantoja's map is of the highest importance in the history of the mapping of San Diego. In this printing, the map of San Diego is accompanied by a map of the harbor at San Blas. Spain's 18th century outposts in Upper California depended on supplies sent from the naval base at San Blas, on the west coast of Mexico. The outposts were supplied by annual expeditions from San Blas. During the expedition of 1782 by the Princesa and Favorita, Pantoja served as navigator and cartographer, during which time he produced 8 manuscript maps. One of the maps produced by Pantoja was a detailed and reasonably accurate chart of San Diego harbor, surveyed during a seven-week layover in San Diego Bay. The map was widely circulated in English and French versions as well as Spanish, and in 1848 was attached to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which established the western end of the U.S.-Mexican boundary.

The expedition left San Blas for San Francisco in March 1782, sailing far to the west, in order to avoid coastal winds and currents,a 2 month circuitous voyage. After a long stop at San Francisco, the ships called at Monterey; charted the coast in the Santa Barbara Channel area, where the new Santa Barbara Presidio had just been established; and dropped anchor at San Diego August 21, 1782. After completing preliminary work (bearings and demarcations), Pantoja set out with a small group to investigate the harbor. He first reconnoitering the coastline southward to Todos Santos Bay (Ensenada), then returned. On September 11, 1782, the party surveyed the broad inlet-(" Spanish Bight") that once separated Coronado and North Island. The surveyors spent September 12, 1782 along the 6-mile strand that encloses the bay on the west, landing twice- near present Coronado Cays marina to establish a baseline and make demarcations; and again to obtain the view from a bluff (now on the grounds of a U.S. Navy radio station). On September 13, 1782, the party landed to fill water casks at the mouth of a river (Otay), then worked up the eastern shore, anchoring that night off the Choyas Indian rancheria (foot of 32nd Street.) Pantoja finished the survey work on September 14, 1782, reboarding the Princesa at sunset. No trouble had been experienced with the natives, who came out repeatedly in reed canoes to look, to engage in trade, and to profess their Christianity. On September 16, 1782, Pantoja began placement of buoys about the harbor for use in studying tides. His charting of the harbor was completed on September 28, 1782.

For reasons which are not entirely known, Pantoja's original map did not appear in printed form until it was included in Espinosa & Tello's account of the last Spanishy Voyage of exploration in hte region. Often considered as the Spanish "Vancouver," Espinosa y Tello's official account details the last and very important voyage up the Pacific coast to be undertaken by Spain, and accompanied by an atlas volume consisting of nine maps and eight plates. Dionisio Alcala Galiano and Cayetano Valdes led this important Spanish expedition to California and the Northwest Coast of Ameica, arriving in the northwest at the same time as Vancouver. Although the maps were published four years after the Vancouver maps, Wagner considers them in many respects to be superior, and Humboldt used them in his Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne. Wagner further states: "The general impression today...is that the English discoveries of Vancouver were published four years before those of the Spaniards. This...is a misapprehension... The principal reason, however, why the nomenclature and geography of Vancouver came to occupy the field was that his maps were extensively copied by the famous English cartographer, Aaron Arrowsmith, and later by the English Admiralty."

Reference
Streeter 2458; Graff 1262; Howes G18(under Galiano, "dd"); Cowen, p.198; Sabin 69221; Wagner, Northwest Coast, p225-233, p252-254, vol 1, and #861, vol 2; Lowery 95, 704; Cook, "Flood Tide of Empire."