The Malaspina Expedition 1789–1794

Journal of the Voyage by Alejandro Malaspina. Volume I: Cádiz to Panamá

Andrew David, Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Glyndwr Williams

• Publisher: Hakluyt Society
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781032294018
• eBook ISBN: 9781317024637
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Among the voyages of exploration and surveying in the late 18th century, that of Alejandro Malaspina best represents the high ideals and scientific interests of the Enlightenment. Italian-born, Malaspina entered the Spanish navy in 1774. In September 1788 he and fellow-officer José Bustamante submitted a plan to the Ministry of Marine for a voyage of survey and inspection to Spanish territories in the Americas and Philippines. The expedition was to produce hydrographic charts for the use of Spanish merchantmen and warships and to report on the political, economic and defensive state of Spain's overseas possessions. The plan was approved and in July 1789 Malaspina and Bustamante sailed from Cádiz in the purpose-built corvettes, Descubierta and Atrevida. On board the vessels were scientists and artists and an array of the latest surveying and astronomical instruments. The voyage lasted more than five years. On his return Malaspina was promoted Brigadier de la Real Armada, and began work on an account of the voyage in seven volumes to dwarf the narratives of his predecessors in the Pacific such as Cook and Bougainville. Among much else, it would contain sweeping recommendations for reform in the governance of Spain's overseas empire. But Malaspina became involved in political intrigue. In November 1795 he was arrested, stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment. Although released in 1803, Malaspina spent the last seven years of his life in obscure retirement in Italy. He never resumed work on the great edition, and his journal was not published in Spain until 1885. Only in recent years has a multi-volume edition appeared under the auspices of the Museo Naval, Madrid, that does justice to the achievements of what for long was a forgotten voyage. This first volume of a series of three contains Malaspina's diario or journal from 31 July 1789 to 14 December 1790, newly translated into English, with substantial introduction and commentary. Among the places visited and described are Montevideo, Puerto Deseado, Port Egmont, Puerto San Carlos, Valparaíso, Callao, Guayaquil and Panamá. Other texts include Malaspina's introduction to his intended edition, and his correspondence with the Minister of the Marine before and during the voyage.

APPENDIX 1

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The Malaspina—Valdés Correspondence

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The exchange of letters between Malaspina and Antonio Valdés y Bazán, Ministro de Marina,¹ throws much light on the objectives of the ‘Scientific and Political Voyage Around the World’. Valdés was head of the Order of St John in Spain, and so took a natural interest in the career of Malaspina, a fellow member of the Order. At the time of the voyage he wrote of Malaspina that ‘his knowledge, birth, nobility and elegance of person and manners, proud bearing, affability, resolute character and social gifts made him the first in our navy and a unique choice for that commission’.² The letters printed here demonstrate the original objectives of the voyage as set out by Malaspina and Bustamante in their ‘Plan’ of September 1788, and the way in which events modified those aims. The final letter in this set was written by Malaspina at Callao on 15 September 1790. Subsequent correspondence between Malaspina and Valdés will appear in later volumes of this edition.

1. Alejandro Malaspina to Antonio Valdés. Madrid, 10 September 1788.³

Excellency

While with these lines I am complying with your order to inform you about my plans before leaving Madrid, I am also taking this opportunity to convey my thoughts in greater detail than I was able to do when I spoke with Your Excellency Without being thought impertinent or importunate, I hope that you may think fit to guide my future steps so that my aims, directed towards the service of His Majesty, are accomplished to the best effect.

First of all I should say to Your Excellency that the current situation in Europe leads me to think that I should return directly to the Department [of Cádiz], which I shall do at the end of this month of September if Your Excellency considers it appropriate and gives me leave to go⁴… I trust also that it will not appear presumptuous of me to send you the attached Plan for a Scientific and Political Voyage around the World. This Don José Bustamante y Guerra and myself undertake to carry out if we are granted a period of about eight months for the necessary assembly of resources and personnel, and for indispensable preliminary studies.

It would, however, be very distressing indeed at a time when I would rather be offering my life fighting the enemies of the Crown to be occupied with tasks other than purely military ones. In this respect I can without hesitation put myself forward either for a commission as commander of a squadron, or for the command of a single ship to operate in seas frequented by enemy forces, perhaps with the aim of observing their forces at close quarters.

The need for some respite in order to organize the results of my last voyage¹ as well as to make some progress with my professional and political studies make me think that Your Excellency will not consider unjustified a final request should I fail at this time to be assigned a commission at sea. This is to shut myself in the observatory at Cadiz for some months rather than taking up command of the Midshipmen’s College (Compañías de Guardias Marinas) that at present is so ably discharged by Capitán de Fragata Don José Barrientos y Rato. It would cause me much satisfaction if Your Excellency were to accept the reports on matters of naval or national interest that I could submit as a result of such a quiet retreat.

Above all else Your Excellency can be sure that my good health and willing spirit require that I occupy myself with work, the more so because work is the only reward that I wish.

May Our Lord grant Your Excellency many years of life. Madrid 10 September 1788.

Excellency, I am &c.

Alejandro Malaspina

2. Plan for a Scientific and Political Voyage Around the World

For the past twenty years two nations, the English and the French, in noble competition, have undertaken voyages of this sort in which navigation, geography and humanity itself have made very rapid progress. The history of human society has thus been founded on much wider research; natural history has been enriched with almost endless discoveries; and possibly the most exciting victory has been the preservation of health in the course of long sea voyages through different climates while facing the most challenging labours and dangers.

The proposed voyage would aim to accomplish these objectives, and this part, which can be termed the scientific aspect, would certainly be undertaken following earnestly in the wake of Cook and La Pérouse.

But a voyage undertaken by Spanish navigators must necessarily involve two other objectives. One is the making of hydrographic charts covering the most remote regions of America and the compilation of sailing directions capable of providing safe guidance to inexperienced merchant mariners. The other is the investigation of the political status of America both in relation to Spain and to other European nations.

The commercial conditions in each province or kingdom, with individual consideration of their natural products and manufactures; their preparedness and capacity to resist an enemy invasion and conversely their ability to provide forces to attack the same enemy; the condition of the ports most suited for maintaining reciprocal trade; and finally the important activities of shipbuilding and supply of naval equipment, are aspects whose careful and secret investigation should be of some interest to the State. Our report would be adjusted to different political axioms concerning national prosperity whose acceptance or rejection must be subjected to the adjudication of reputable assessors called upon to examine them. Consequently all these tasks will have to be divided into two parts: the public one which will include not only the likely collection of curiosities for the Real Gabinete and the Jardín Botánico¹, but also the hydrographic and historical sections; the other a confidential one which will be directed to the political enquiries mentioned above. These could include, if the Government considered it appropriate, the Russian settlements in California² and the English ones at Botany Bay and the Liqueyos,³ all of them places of interest whether from a commercial point of view or in the event of war.

His Majesty’s Navy will be able to provide all the personnel for this commission, except for the two botanists or naturalists and the two topographical draughtsmen, for which posts it should be possible to find volunteers without undue difficulty in Madrid. As for the class of ships needed and the quality of their crews, the three principal requirements of safety, convenience and economy can easily be combined. The complement required for each of the ships can be kept down to about one hundred men. The actual detail of each vessel, such as the rigging, inboard arrangements, number of boats, their features and their equipment, and, finally, the quantity and quality of victuals, are too much to go into at present, and in any case cannot be precisely determined until such time as His Majesty shall decide on the scope of the proposed expedition.

To carry out the plan outlined below might take approximately three and a half years from 1 July 1789, the date by which the ships could depart if His Majesty were to give his approval now, either as proposed or with modifications, allowing eight months to those who will have to implement it. This is necessary for the collection of all the requisite materials as well as for the preliminary studies, the most important of which will be the acquisition of skills in practical astronomy.

The two corvettes will sail from Cadiz on the 1 July 1789 and will proceed to Montevideo, where a fresh rating of the chronometers, such astronomical observations as are possible, and all kinds of natural history studies, will be carried out. Various kinds of provisions will be acquired there for the maintenance of the crews, and also for experimental purposes. From there the Malvinas¹ will be surveyed and, if the Government considered it advisable, some livestock could be landed at Bahía de Buen Suceso in Estrecho de le Maire, since it seems evident that this anchorage will be the most convenient port of call for the navigation of Cabo de Hornos. From Bahía de Buen Suceso a course will be set to round Cabo de Hornos, and we should attempt to survey Cabo Victoria and some part of Archipiélago de los Chonos. Finally we will drop anchors at Chiloé, which might be towards the end of 1789. The whole of the year 1790 will be employed on the western coasts of America from Chiloé to San Blas. An effort will be made to make the navigation from Guayaquil, Acapulco &c to Lima easier than now; a search will be made for the Isias del Gallego², and a party will be sent from Acapulco to México City.

The first three months of 1791 will be taken up with a survey of the Isias Sandwich.³ After following the coast of California, the voyage will continue to the north between Asia and America as far as the snows will allow. After calling at Kamchatka (if the Government thinks fit), we shall continue to Canton [Guangzhou] to sell seaotter furs for the benefit of the crews.

Departure from this port will therefore be about October or November 1791. Advantage will be taken of this season to survey Cabos Bojeador and Engaño, and Puerto de Lampón⁴ on the opposite coast of Luzón. We should then proceed to the Marianas and from there concentrate our work on charting in great detail the navigation through Estrecho de San Bernardino to Manila. From that capital we shall shape our course to survey Mindanao and after passing between Celebes and the Moluccas and north of New Holland, enter the Indian Ocean.

After coasting the whole of the western seaboard of New Holland, we shall proceed (in about March 1792) to Botany Bay. Isias de los Amigos⁵ and Isias de la Sociedad⁶ will then be visited, and towards October or November New Zealand from where, finally, we shall head south and then alter course to NW in order to round New Holland and head for Cabo de Buena Esperanza, aiming to return to Europe in April or May 1793.

Capitanes de Fragata Don Alejandro Malaspina and Don José Bustamante y Guerra, anxious to place all their energies in the service of the state, volunteer their services to implement this plan in the hope that they will deserve to receive for their direction and greater success, information from, and the support of, the government, as well as information from individuals in Europe and across the Americas.

As far as the officer class under our command is concerned this particular commission requires that they should all be volunteers, and that in terms of both health and capabilities they should have full confidence in each other.

Madrid 10 September 1788.

Alejandro Malaspina

3. Antonio Valdés to Alejandro Malaspina. San Lorenzo del Escorial, 14 October 1788.¹

Your proje...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contributing Editors
• Table of Contents
• Illustrations and Maps
• Joint Foreword
• Preface
• List of Equivalents and Abbreviations
• Translating Malaspina
• Introduction
• Malaspina’s ‘Introducción’
• Book One From Cadiz to Montevideo and at Montevideo
• Book Two From Montevideo to Puerto San Carlos de Chiloe
• Book Three From Puerto San Carlos de Chiloe to Coquimbo
• Book Four From Coquimbo to Callao
• Book Five From Callao to Acapulco
• Appendix 1 The Malaspina-Valdés Correspondence
• Appendix 2 Malaspina’s Survey Methods
• Works Cited