1775.] VOYAGE OF HECETA AND BODEGA. 117 



beyond question the claim of Perez to the discovery of the important 

 harbor called Nootka Sound, which is now, by general consent, 

 assigned to Captain Cook. 



Immediately after the return of Perez to* Mexico, the viceroy 

 Bucareli (the same officer who, as governor of Buenos Ayres, had 

 expelled the British from the Falkland Islands in 1770) ordered that 

 another expedition should be made for the purpose of examining 

 those coasts as far as the 65th degree of latitude, to which they 

 were believed to extend continuously north-westward. With this 

 object the Santiago was placed under the command of Captain 

 Bruno Heceta, under. whom Perez was to go* as ensign; and she 

 was to be accompanied by a small schooner, called the Sonora, of 

 which Juan de Ayala was to have the command, and Antonio 

 Maurelle to be pilot. These two vessels, having been equipped, 

 and provided with the History of California by Venegas, and a chart 

 of the whole north-west coast of America, constructed according to 

 the fancy of the French geographer Bellin, in 1766,* sailed together 

 from San Bias, on the 15th of March, 1775, in company with the 

 schooner San Carlos, bound for Monterey, f Ere they had lost sight 

 of the land, however, the captain of the San Carlos became delirious, 

 in consequence of which Ayala was ordered to take his place, the 

 command of the Sonora being transferred to Lieutenant Juan Fran- 

 cisco de la Bodega y Quadra. These circumstances are mentioned, 

 because, in nearly all the abstracts of the accounts of this voyage 

 hitherto published, Ayala appears as the chief of the expedition ; 

 whereas, in fact, he only accompanied the exploring vessels to a 

 short distance from San Bias. 



* Carte reduite de l'Ocean septentrional, compris entre 1'Asie et l'Amerique, 

 suivant les Decouvertes faites par les Russes. Par N. Bellin. Paris, 1766. 



t Of this expedition no less than five separate accounts are found among the 

 manuscripts obtained from Madrid, viz. : the official narrative of the whole, drawn 

 up for the viceroy of Mexico — the Journal of Bodega — part of the Journal of 

 Heceta, showing his course after his parting with Bodega — a concise narrative by 

 Bodega — and, lastly, the Journal of Maurelle, the pilot of the Sonora. A copy of 

 Maurelle 's Journal was obtained in Madrid, soon after the conclusion of the voyage, 

 from which an English translation was published at London, in 1781, by the Hon. 

 Daines Barrington, among his Miscellanies. This translation, though very inaccurate 

 and incomplete, attracted much attention at the time of its appearance, and from it, 

 and the short account given in the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and 

 Valdes, all the information respecting the voyage has been hitherto obtained. Bar- 

 rington's Miscellanies is, however, a rare book ; and the notices of this expedition 

 contained in the various memoirs, reports, correspondence, &c, relative to the north- 

 west coast, are, for the most part, taken directly, or at second hand, from the abstracts 

 of the Journal, given by Fleurieu in his instructions to La Perouse, and his Intro- 

 duction to the Journal of Marchand, which are both filled with errors. 



