Spanish Contact: 1791 and 1792

In July 1791, the small schooner Santa Saturnina accompanied by the longboat of the frigate San Carlos, all under the command of the young Spanish naval officer José Maria Narváez, made the first known exploration by non-Native people of what would the following year Captain Vancouver would call the Gulf of Georgia (after King George III). The Spanish expedition sailed as far north as a large island, which they named Isla de San Felix, later renamed Isla de Texada, then turned west across the Strait to Punta de Lazo de la Vega, still known to us as Cape Lazo. Sailing south from there along the east coast of Vancouver Island, the expedition visited what they called Bocas de Hijosa, but renamed Bocas de Winthuysen in their published chart (Nanaimo Harbour), then rounded the northwest tip of Gabriola (named in their published chart Punta de Casatilli after the Marqués de Casa Tilly—now Orlebar Point). They anchored off the Whalebone Beach area. What appeared to them to be a point, but was actually the Flat Top Islands was subsequently named Punta de Gaviola in their published chart, most likely after a paymaster of the Spanish fleet, Simón Gaviola y Zabala. The expedition continued sailing south down to Port Discovery on the Olympic Peninsula for a rendezvous with the San Carlos. From there most of the expedition members returned to their establishment at Nootka but the Santa Saturnina was forced by bad weather to return directly to what is now San Blas in Mexico. The journals of the 1791 expedition have been lost and so there is no certainty that they landed on Gabriola; however, the detail of their chart, the marking of Native villages, and the presence of an anchor symbol on their sketches just off shore, all suggest that they did at least briefly come ashore.

Early in June of the following year, 1792, a larger expedition set out from Nootka. Two 46 foot schooners--the Sutil (commanded by Dionisio Alcalá Galiano) and the Mexicana (under Cayetano Valdés)--were ordered by Alejandro Malaspina to explore the Gulf of Georgia, and to determine, finally, if the fabled northwest passage to the Atlantic existed. This voyage is reported in Relacion del Viage Hecho por las Goletas Sutil y Mexicana, published in 1802. The following summary of their visit to Gabriola Island is taken from Henry R Wagner's 1933 translation. (Original text with line-by-line translation is available.)
On June 13th, near Point Roberts, Sutil and Mexicana encountered a British expedition under Captain George Vancouver, and were invited to join forces to explore to the north. The two small Spanish vessels were unable to keep up—despite hours of hard rowing against east winds and the current from the Fraser River, they were driven into the Gulf, eventually making landfall off the east coast of Galiano Island, near Active Pass. They spent the next day looking for a safe harbour—more currents, more rowing, lost in a maze of small islands in Porlier Pass and almost capsizing—until, sailing up the north side of Gabriola and around Punta de Casatilli, they anchored in a protected bay, which they named Cala del Descanso (bay of rest), "from our need of rest and our appreciation in finding it on this occasion."
We now know that the Cala del Descanso was Pilot Bay on Gabriola, not Descanso Bay which was so mis-named in the early 1900s. [See SHALE 1 pp.12–21 for an article on Galiano’s sketch maps.] A landing party was sent to find wood and fresh water "at the bottom of the cove" (the Twin Beaches peninsula). They had not gone far when they "saw some natives of the country who made signs to us not to go farther, while others were running, apparently to warn their women”. The landing party withdrew, and succeeded in communicating their need for water, upon which they were led to "two very poor springs" on the east shore of the bay. ("This confirmed us in the idea we already had of the scarcity of fresh water on these shores.") The Native people gave the sailors "sardines, sun-dried and smoked", and later, according to archived manuscripts which differ from the edited published version, traded dog-hair and sea-otter coats, and bows and arrows for “baubles”. However, despite brisk trade, and the Spanish expedition's efforts to put them at ease, the Native Gabriolans remained "suspicious" and "easily startled"—apparently very different from the "trusting and affable" residents of Boca de Porlier encountered the day before. It rained "continuously" for several days, during which Galiano and Valdés put their notes of the voyage in order, while their crews collected water from the springs ("30 barrels a day") and made repairs to the ships' boats. José Cardero, the expedition's artist, sketched the Native chief and an unusual rock formation (now formally called the Galiano Gallery but much better known by its local name as part of the Malaspina Galleries). Neither of the original sketches have survived but copies made later in Madrid have. They also observed and described local fishing techniques. On June 17th, it was bright and sunny--a small party ventured inland from Descanso to trade, but found only "an abandoned village" (in Tayor Bay). The next day, at 5:00 am, the two schooners weighed anchor to cross the Strait again and meet with Vancouver's expedition. They would eventually succeed in sailing north around Vancouver Island, returning to Nootka on August 31st. It is possible that Gabriola was also visited by Captain Vancouver in 1792 but if so, his visit was very brief and he made no contact with the people living there. [See SHALE 14 pp.2–9.] Some historians believed that the "l" in Punta de Gaviola was not crossed when the first Spanish map was drawn and so the point acquired a meaningless name--Punta de Gaviola--a name later applied to the whole island and subsequently corrupted to "Gabriola". Subsequent research in the Spanish Archives has however failed to find a single map, document, or sketch, in which the "l" is crossed making it Punta de Gaviota (Seagull Point). The idea that Gabriola’s name is derived from the Spanish word “gaviota” is now believed to be wrong and that Gaviola is not a typographic error, but a family name. [See SHALE 13 pp.7–38 for an article on research into the origin of Gabriola's name.]

Narváez missed Gabriola Passage, and was under the impression that Valdes Island was continuous with Gabriola. He also assumed that all he saw was part of Vancouver Island. A year later, Galiano and Valdés may have made the same error. Captains of the Hudson’s Bay Company discovered this error in the late-1840s—a chart based on this information dated 1849 was published in Russia—and it was more widely publicized by Governor James Douglas who made a canoe trip from Victoria to Nanaimo in 1852. The first British naval chart showing the southern outer east coast of Vancouver Island as a chain of islands separate from Vancouver Island was published in 1858. [See SHALE 3 pp.7–17 for an article on research into early naval charts of the Gulf Islands.]

Wagner, Henry R. Spanish Explorations in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. (reprint of 1933 edition.) NY: AMS Press, 1971.