Bruno de Heceta (Hezeta) y Dudagoitia (1743–1807) was a Spanish Basque explorer of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. Born in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

of an old Basque family, he was sent by the

Viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning "k ...

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

Antonio María Bucareli y Ursúa Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

, to explore the area north of

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

in response to information that there were colonial Russian settlements there.

Background

The Spanish claim to Alaska and the Pacific Northwest had dated back to the 1493 papal bull ('' Inter caetera'') and rights contained in the 1494

Treaty of Tordesillas The Treaty of Tordesillas, ; pt, Tratado de Tordesilhas . signed in Tordesillas, Spain on 7 June 1494, and authenticated in Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Portuguese Empire and the Spanish Emp ...

. These two formal acts formed the basis of Spain's claim of the exclusive right to colonize all of the Western Hemisphere (excluding present-day Brazil), including all of the

west coast of North America The human history of the west coast of North America is believed to stretch back to the arrival of the earliest people over the Bering Strait, or alternately along a now-submerged coastal plain, through the development of significant pre-Columbi ...

. The first European expedition to actually reach the Pacific coast was led by the Spaniard Vasco Núñez de Balboa, which reached the western coast of present-day

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

in 1513. Balboa claimed the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

for the Spanish Crown, as well as all the lands touching it. This action of Balboa further solidified the Spanish claim of exclusive control over the entire west coast of North America. Confident of their claims, the Spanish Empire did not explore or settle the northwest coast of North America in the 250 years after Balboa's claim. By the late 18th century, however, learning of Russian and British arrivals along the

and Alaskan coasts, Spain finally grew sufficiently concerned about their claims to the region and set out the extent of any Russian or British encroachment.

Pacific expedition

A first expedition led by Juan José Pérez Hernández in 1774 with just one ship, the frigate ''Santiago'' (alias ''Nueva Galicia'' ), did not reach as far north as planned. Thus in 1775, when a small group of officers from Spain reached the Pacific port of San Blas in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (present day México), the viceroy placed one of them, Bruno de Heceta, in charge of a second expedition. This expedition was to have two ships, with the second a smaller ship that could explore in shallower waters. Heceta was given command of the ''Santiago''. Accompanying Heceta was the

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

''Sonora'' (alias ''Felicidad'', also known as ''Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe'') initially under the command of

Juan Manuel de Ayala Juan Manuel de Ayala y Aranza (28 December 1745 – 30 December 1797) was a Spanish naval officer who played a significant role in the European exploration of California, since he and the crew of his ship the ''San Carlos'' are the first European ...

. The ''Sonora'', with a crew of 16, was to perform coastal reconnaissance and mapping, and could make landfall in places the larger ''Santiago'' was unable to approach on its previous voyage. In this way the expedition could officially lay claim to the lands of northern New Spain it visited. The two ships sailed together as far north as ''Punta de los Martires'' (or "Point of the Martyrs"), present day

Point Grenville Point Grenville is a headland of Washington state. The point was named ''Punta de los Mártires'' ("Point of the Martyrs") during the 1775 expedition of Bruno de Heceta Bruno de Heceta (Hezeta) y Dudagoitia (1743–1807) was a Spanish Basque expl ...

in the U.S. state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, named by Heceta in response to an attack by the local

Quinault Quinault may refer to: * Quinault people, an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast **Quinault Indian Nation, a federally recognized tribe **Quinault language, their language People * Quinault family of actors, including * Jean-Baptis ...

Native Americans. By design, the vessels parted company on the evening of July 30, 1775, with the ''Santiago'' continuing north, to what is today the border between Washington and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The ''Señora'', with second officer

Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (22 May 1743 – 26 March 1794) was a Spanish Criollo naval officer operating in the Americas. Assigned to the Pacific coast Spanish Naval Department base at San Blas, in Viceroyalty of New Spain (present ...

at the helm, following its orders continuing further north up the coast, ultimately reaching a position at latitude 59° north on August 15, 1775, entering

Sitka Sound Sitka Sound is a body of water near the city of Sitka, Alaska. It is bordered by Baranof Island to the south and the northeast, by Kruzof Island to the northwest and by the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. During the early 19th century it was a ...

near the present-day town of

Sitka, Alaska russian: Ситка , native_name_lang = tli , settlement_type = Consolidated city-borough , image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg , image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984 , image_size ...

. There, and near a Russian settlement on present day Kodiak Island, the Spaniards performed numerous "acts of

sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...

" claiming the territory. Bodega y Quadra named ''Puerto de Bucareli'' (present-day

Bucareli Bay Bucareli Bay is a bay in the Alexander Archipelago, in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located off the western coast of Prince of Wales Island, between Baker Island and Suemez Island. To the east it connects to various wat ...

, Alaska), ''Puerto de los Remedios'', and ''Cerro San Jacinto'', which was renamed Mount Edgecumbe three years later in 1778 by English explorer

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

. On his return journey south, still with only the larger ''Santiago'' and a reduced crew, Heceta discovered a large bay penetrating far inland. He was the first European to sight the mouth of the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

. He tried to sail in but the strong currents prevented it, even under a full press of sails. His crew was so reduced that they could not handle the anchor so he could not easily wait for better conditions. He wrote that the seething currents led him to believe it was the mouth of a great river or a passage to another sea. Later he guessed it to be the Strait of Juan de Fuca. He named the entrance bay ''Bahia de la Asunción'' and produced a map of what he could discern from outside the

Columbia Bar The Columbia Bar, also frequently called the Graveyard of the Pacific, is a system of bar (landform), bars and shoals at the mouth of the Columbia River spanning the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington (state), Washington. It is known as one of th ...

. Later Spanish maps often showed the Columbia River's estuary with the name ''Entrada de Hezeta'', ''Rio de San Roque'', and other similar variants. Throughout the voyage, the crews of both vessels endured many hardships, including food shortages and scurvy. On September 8, 1775, the ships rejoined and headed south for the return trip to San Blas.

Later years

Subsequently, Heceta returned to Spain, fighting in various naval battles against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. He died there in 1807 with the rank of the

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Legacy

Heceta Island Heceta Island (pronounced HECK–ah–Ta) is an island in the Alexander Archipelago of southeastern Alaska, United States. It lies just off the west coast of Prince of Wales Island. Kosciusko Island lies to its north, while Tuxekan Island lies t ...

in Alaska, and Heceta Head and the

Heceta Head Light Heceta Head Light is a lighthouse on the Oregon Coast north of Florence, and south of Yachats in the United States. It is located at Heceta Head Lighthouse State Scenic Viewpoint, a state park, midway up a 205-foot-tall (62 m) headland. Bui ...

on the

Oregon Coast The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...

, are named after him. In Oregon it is pronounced "Ha–SEE–Ta" and in Alaska it is pronounced "HECK–ah–Ta."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heceta Y Dudagoitia, Bruno De Spanish explorers of North America Explorers of Alaska Explorers of Oregon Basque explorers 18th-century explorers People of New Spain 1743 births 1807 deaths People from Bilbao 18th-century Spanish people 19th-century Spanish people Spanish history in the Pacific Northwest Explorers of Washington (state)