The Spanish "Vancouver" in a Beautiful Binding.
A very rare and important collection of maps and plates relating to the Spanish explorations and discoveries along the Northwest Coast of America at the end of the 18th century.
This is the being the atlas volume to accompany the Relación del viage hecho por las goletas Sutil y Mexicana en el año de 1792, which detailed the last Spanish expedition to the Pacific Northwest, of Dionisio Alcala Galiano and Cayetano Valdes, which encountered Vancouver's expedition at Esquimalt Bay and reached Nootka Sound in September of 1792.
The maps depict the west coast of North America from Acapulco to Unalaska and the coast of California on a larger scale, and also include plans of the ports of San Diego, Monterey (California), Nootka, Mulgrave, and Desengano. The plates include portraits of Juan de Fuca and the chiefs of Nootka, as well as two large folding plates of Cala de los Amigo and of a Nootka marriage feast. This is the last and very important voyage up the Pacific coast to be undertaken by Spain is detailed in the nine maps and eight plates of the atlas.
Galiano and Cayetano Valdes led the expedition, 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."
Sometimes attributed to Dionisio Alcala Galiano.
Complement of Maps and Plates
- Numero 1. Carta Esferica de los Reconocimientos Hechos en la Costa N.O. de America en 1791. y 92. por las Goletas Sutil y Mexicana y otros Buques de S.M.
- Numo. 2 Carta Esferica de los Reconocimientos hechos en la Costa N.O. de America en 1791. y 92. por las Goletas Sutil, y Mexicana y otros Buques de S.M. (Manuscript annotations to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and nearby areas.)
- Numero. 3. Continuacion de los reconocimientos hechos En La Costa NO. De America Por Los Buques de S.M. en varias Campanas desde 1774 a 1792.
- Carta de los reconocimientos hechos en 1602. Por el Capitan Sebastian Vizcayno Formada por los Planos queue hizo el mismo durante su comision.
- Plano del Puerto de S. Diego en La Costa Setentl. de Californs. Levantado por el 2o. Piloto de la Armada D. Juan Pantoja. Ano 1782.
- Plano del Puerto y Bahia de Monte Rey situado en la Costa de Californs. Trabajado a bordo de las Corvetas Descubierta y Atrevida . Ano 1791.
- Plano de la Cala de Los Amigos. Situada en la parte Ocidental de la entrada de Nutka Ano 1791.
- Plano del Puerto de Mulgrave Trabajado a bordo de las Corvetas Descubierta y Atrevida. de la Marina Real Ano 1791.
- Fiesta celebrada en Nutka por su Xefe Macuina a causa de haber...
- Vista de los interior de la Cala de los...
- Macuina Xefe de Nutka
- Tetacu Xefe de la entrada del Estrecho de Juan de Fuca
- Maria, Muger de Fetacu
- Oratorio del Fays de Nutka
- Plancha de Madera hallada en el Canal a que por esta razon se dio el nombre de Canal de la Tabla
- El Pese que bimos semejava a estos aun que no devisamos...