40-885: Yuquot ( / ˈ j uː k w ɔː t / ), also known as Friendly Cove , is a small settlement of around six people—the Williams family of the Mowachaht band—plus two full-time lighthouse keepers, located on Nootka Island in Nootka Sound , just west of Vancouver Island , British Columbia , Canada . It was the summer home of Chief Maquinna and the Mowachaht/Muchalaht ( Nuu-chah-nulth ) people for generations, housing approximately 1,500 people in 20 traditional wooden longhouses. The name means "Wind comes from all directions" in Nuu-chah-nulth . The community
80-558: A Hawaiian chief or "prince of Attooi" (Kauai) by the name of Tianna ( Kaʻiana – also spelled Tyaana & Tyanna), whom he took aboard his ship. He took Tianna to Guangzhou (Canton), China, where Meares found a Hawaiian woman by the name of Wynee , who had been left there by captain Charles William Barkley of the Imperial Eagle . Eventually, Meares returned Tianna to his homeland but Wynee died of illness on
120-537: A commissioner to Nootka Sound in order to carry out the terms of the Nootka Convention and related diplomatic issues. Arriving in 1792, George Vancouver was commissioner for Britain and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra for Spain. Quadra also served as the commandant of the Spanish settlement at Yuquot, hosting Vancouver and his crew. Quadra and Vancouver had to engage in diplomatic negotiations due to
160-555: A small rocky island that overlooks Yuquot and forms part of its natural harbour . The original lighthouse was later replaced with the current lighthouse in 1958. It serves as a navigational aid to vessels transiting Nootka Sound . Recently, the lighthouse has been home to a seasonal Canadian Coast Guard Inshore Rescue Boat station with a crew of three (two deckhands and a coxswain ) and an 8-metre (26 ft) fast rescue craft at their disposal. Nootka Island Nootka Island ( Spanish : isla de Nutca ; French : île Nootka )
200-570: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . John Meares John Meares (c. 1756 – 1809) was an English navigator, explorer, and maritime fur trader , best known for his role in the Nootka Crisis , which brought Britain and Spain to the brink of war. Meares' father was Charles Meares, "formerly an attorney of great eminence, and for several years pursuivant of his Majesty's Court of Exchequer in Dublin ". In 1771, Meares joined
240-562: Is a component in all the names of their subgroups, and of some locations (e.g. Yuquot , Mowachaht , Kyuquot , Opitsaht etc.). Names 49°44′35″N 126°46′10″W / 49.74306°N 126.76944°W / 49.74306; -126.76944 This article about a location on the Coast of British Columbia , Canada is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to an island or group of islands in Canada
280-652: Is known of Meares' life after the settlement of the Nootka controversy. So far as is known he received none of the Spanish indemnity money. He was rewarded for his role by promotion to the rank of commander on 26 February 1795. The marriage of "John Meares Esq. of Frome, [Cornwall], to Miss Mary Anne Guilleband, at the Abbey church, Bath" was noted in The Whitehall Evening Post of 9 July 1796. Meares apparently considered Bath his home after his retirement from
320-657: Is located within the Strathcona Regional District but like all Indian Reserve communities is not governed by nor represented in the regional district. The Mowchaht/Muchalaht First Nations are rather part of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council , which unites the governments of the indigenous communities of the Island's West Coast. The Canadian government declared Friendly Cove a National Historic Site in 1923, with recognition of
360-680: Is no doubt that Meares' men, and a group of Chinese workers they brought, built the sloop North West America . It was launched in September 1788, the first non-Indigenous vessel built in the Pacific Northwest. In September Meares left, sailing the Felice Adventurero to China. The Iphigenia Nubiana and North West America wintered in the Hawaiian Islands . While on the island of Kauai , Meares picked up
400-525: Is now Canada , and the northernmost verified Spanish settlement in the Americas . The colony was protected by the cannon of Fort San Miguel and was maintained until the resolution of the Nootka Crisis in 1795. Yuquot was the scene of the Nootka Crisis , which nearly led to war between Spain and Britain. Negotiations in Europe calmed the situation and led to the first Nootka Convention . Each nation sent
440-562: Is the largest island off the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia , Canada. It is 510 square kilometres (200 sq mi) in area. It is separated from Vancouver Island by Nootka Sound and its side-inlets, and is located within Electoral Area A of the Strathcona Regional District . Europeans named the island after a Nuu-chah-nulth language word meaning "go around, go around". They likely thought
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#1732773208435480-541: The Lady Washington , under John Kendrick and Robert Gray , which had wintered at Nootka Sound. Over the summer a number of other ships arrived. The vessels of Meares' company were all seized on the grounds of violating Spanish rights of trade and navigation on the coast. The North West America was renamed Santa Saturnina and used by José María Narváez to explore the Strait of Georgia in 1791. When news of
520-636: The Columbia River at Cape Disappointment . On board Felice Adventurero for the 1788 voyage from China to Nootka Sound was Comekela , younger brother of Maquinna, chief of the Mowachaht Nuu-chah-nulth people of the Nootka Sound area. Comekela had sailed from Nootka Sound to China in 1786-87 with James Hanna . Meares later claimed that Maquinna , a chief of the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) people, sold him some land on
560-580: The Iphigenia Nubiana , under William Douglas . The names are spelled in various ways, such as Feliz Aventureira and Efigenia Nubiana . They sailed from China on 22 January 1788 and arrived at Nootka Sound , on Vancouver Island in May. Using Nootka Sound as a base of operations he spent the summer trading for furs along the coasts of present-day British Columbia and Washington down to after having sailed as far south as Cape Lookout , having missed
600-487: The North-West Passage . This marked the first recorded landing by Europeans, and a period of sustained contact between the Mowachaht people and these foreigners ensued for a while. On May 5, 1789, Spanish navigator and explorer Esteban José Martínez established the settlement of Santa Cruz de Nuca . It was the first European colony in what is now British Columbia , the only Spanish settlement in what
640-817: The Royal Navy as a captain's servant and was commissioned a lieutenant in 1778. In 1783 he joined the merchant service and in 1785, based in India , formed the Northwest America Company for collecting sea otter furs by trade with the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and selling them in China . The East India Company held a monopoly on British trade in the Pacific and required all British traders to be licensed with
680-538: The Sandwich Islands . Showing no gratitude to Dixon, Meares proceeded to sue him for allegedly overcharging him for the supplies that saved his life. In 1788, and in total violation of what he had told Dixon, Meares started a new expedition with two vessels and more false papers. The ships sailed under the Portuguese flag and were given Portuguese names: the Felice Adventurero , captained by Meares, and
720-478: The Strait of Juan de Fuca . Chief Maquinna played a role in the negotiations, identifying the cove where Meares had built his vessel, swearing that no land had ever been sold to the British and that the Spanish were the rightful occupants at Yuquot—and that only on the condition that the site be restored to his people as soon as possible. Unable to reach an agreement, Vancouver and Quadra left in late 1792 and
760-545: The British fur traders were getting organized, the Spanish were continuing their effort to secure the Pacific Northwest. At first the Spanish were responding mainly to Russian activity in Alaska. On a 1788 voyage to Alaska, Esteban José Martínez had learned that the Russians were intending to establish a fortified outpost at Nootka Sound. This, in addition to the increasing use of Nootka Sound by British fur traders, resulted in
800-574: The Navy, and according to his "last will and testament" he owned property in Jamaica . The death of John Meares, "a Commander in his Majesty’s Navy", at Bath on 29 January 1809, was noted in a newspaper advertisement by his solicitors inviting his creditors to a meeting at the George and Vulture Tavern, Cornhill, London , to take consideration of the state of his affairs. The value of his estate when probated
840-457: The Nootka Convention's vagueness and lack of detail over how it was to be implemented. In addition both commissioners had been given incomplete, differing, and confused instructions by their governments. They negotiated for months but in the end failed to reach an agreement. The matter was sent back to the British and Spanish governments. The primary problem was a differing interpretation of the Nootka Convention. Vancouver's position, as instructed,
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#1732773208435880-479: The North West Coast of America in 1790. It gained widespread attention, especially in light of the developing Nootka Crisis . Meares not only described his voyages to the northwest coast, but put forward a grand vision of a new economic network based in the Pacific, joining in trade widely separated regions such as the Pacific Northwest, China, Japan, Hawaii, and England. His vision required a loosening of
920-601: The Pacific Northwest and European explorers, and developed into a centre of maritime fur trade . In 1774, Spanish explorer Juan José Pérez Hernández became the first European to spot Yuquot. The region was formally claimed as part of the Spanish Empire in a subsequent voyage by Spanish- Basque explorer Bruno de Heceta in 1775. In 1778, the English Captain James Cook arrived at the bay on HMS Resolution , on his expedition in search of
960-547: The Spanish decision to assert sovereignty on the northwest coast once and for all. Plans were laid for Nootka Sound to be colonized. Spain hoped to establish and maintain sovereignty on the entire coast as far north as the Russia posts in Prince William Sound . The Viceroy of New Spain , Manuel Antonio Flórez , instructed Martínez to occupy Nootka Sound, build some kind of structure, and to make it clear that Spain
1000-625: The coast of Alaska . He spent the winter of 1786–1787 in Prince William Sound with poor provisions; his men suffered from the weather and scurvy . Twenty-three of his men died of scurvy and the remaining ten were saved only by the timely arrival of Captain George Dixon , a British trader with proper licences, in the Queen Charlotte . Meares gave Dixon his bond never to trade in the Northwest again, and returned to China by way of
1040-672: The company and pay duties. Meares did not license his ships with the East India Company and instead tried to conceal the illegal activity by using the flag of Portugal . Meares registered his ships in Macau , a Portuguese colony in China. Non-British ships were not required to have licences from the East India Company. He sailed from Calcutta on 12 March 1786, in the Nootka , a vessel of 200 tons ( bm ), with which he explored part of
1080-617: The fur trading companies of Meares and the Etches ( King George's Sound Company ) resulted in James Colnett being given the overall command. Meares instructed Colnett to establish a permanent fur trading post at Nootka Sound based on the foothold accomplished by Meares the year before. The Iphigenia Nubiana and North West America were to join the Argonaut and Princess Royal at Nootka Sound. Meares himself remained in China. While
1120-621: The issue was taken up in the House of Commons as the Royal Navy began to make preparations for hostilities. An ultimatum was delivered to Spain, who without the support of France, capitulated to British terms. The subsequent Nootka Convention led to George Vancouver 's historic voyage in HMS ; Discovery . In 1790, Meares published Voyages Made in the Years 1788 and 1789, from China to
1160-565: The latter to publish a pamphlet about Meares' self-aggrandizement and false claims of discoveries made by others. Meares' claim that Captain Robert Gray had circumnavigated Vancouver island was disclaimed by Gray himself. The explorations of Captain George Vancouver disproved a number of Meares' other claims. Nonetheless, Meares' claims formed a basis for negotiation of British title to Oregon and British Columbia . Not much
1200-534: The monopolistic power of the East India Company and the South Sea Company , which between them controlled all British trade in the Pacific. Meares argued strongly for loosening their power. His vision eventually came to pass, in its general form, but not before the long struggle of the Napoleonic Wars was over. Meares' Voyages also caused a controversy; Meares' criticisms of George Dixon led
1240-533: The murder of the captain and all but one other crew members. Jewitt's memoirs form an important record of Yuquot at that period. The whole of Vancouver Island was declared part of the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1849. This was amalgamated into the Colony of British Columbia in 1858 and later into Canada in 1871. In 1911, the government of Canada erected the Nootka Lighthouse atop San Rafael Island,
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1280-505: The natives were referring to the island itself. The Spanish and later English applied the word to the island and the sound, thinking they were naming both after the people. In the 1980s, the First Nations peoples in the region created the collective autonym of Nuu-chah-nulth , a term that means "along the outside (of Vancouver Island)". An older term for this group of peoples was "Aht", which means "people" in their language and
1320-678: The person he thus pilfered." During the winter of 1788–89 Meares was in Guangzhou (Canton), China, where he and others formed a partnership called the Associated Merchants Trading to the Northwest Coast of America. Plans were made for more ships to sail to the Pacific Northwest in 1789, including the Princess Royal , under Thomas Hudson, and the Argonaut under James Colnett . The consolidation of
1360-554: The seizures reached Meares in China he sailed to England. He arrived in April 1790, confirmed various rumors, claimed to have bought land and built a settlement at Nootka before Martínez, and generally fanned the flames of anti-Spanish feelings. He submitted a report to the Home secretary William Wyndham Grenville , in which he exaggerated the permanence of his settlement in Nootka Sound and the financial losses sustained by his company. In May
1400-474: The settlement at Yuquot remained under Spanish control until 1795, when the terms of the third Nootka Convention, calling for the "mutual abandonment" of Nootka, were carried out, after which the site was reoccupied by the Maquinna and the Mowachaht people. John R. Jewitt , an English blacksmith, was held there for three years 1803-1805 as Maquinna's slave, following the capture of the trading ship Boston and
1440-571: The shore of Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound, in exchange for some pistols and trade goods, and that on this land some kind of building was erected. These claims would become a key point in Britain's position during the Nootka Crisis. Spain strongly disputed both claims, and the true facts of the matter have never been fully established. Maquinna himself later called Meares a liar and denied selling him any land. The land and building aside, there
1480-467: The significance of the Spanish colonial settlement that was once there and First Nations history following in 1997. The meaning of the name Yuquot is “where the winds blow from many directions”. It has been dubbed "the birthplace of British Columbia". Yuquot had been occupied for over 4,300 years by First Nations peoples of the Nootka Sound region. In the late 18th century, Nootka Sound became an important site of early contact between First Nations of
1520-414: The voyage home. Wynee and Tianna are considered the first two Hawaiians to have traveled abroad. Later, Meares gained possession of Barkley's nautical gear and his journal. Barkley's wife, Frances Barkley , later wrote that Meares, "with the greatest effrontery, published and claimed the merit of my husband's discoveries therein contained, besides inventing lies of the most revolting nature tending to vilify
1560-486: Was setting up a formal establishment. Martínez arrived at Nootka Sound on 5 May 1789. He found three ships already there. One was Meares' Iphigenia Nubiana . Martínez seized the ship and arrested its captain, William Douglas. After a few days Martínez released Douglas and his ship and ordered him to leave and not return. Douglas heeded the warning. The other two ships were American, the Columbia Rediviva and
1600-510: Was that the entire Spanish settlement was to be turned over to him. Quadra's position was that there was nothing left to turn over in accord with the Nootka Convention, but he made various offers, such as turning over a small cove in Nootka Sound, where John Meares had built the North West America in 1788, or turning over the entire settlement in exchange if Britain agreed to set the boundary between Spanish and British territory at
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