We will devote two articles to this little-known browser. The second part will be published on our website in October
Of the great navigators of the eighteenth century, we remember the names of the prestigious Wallis, Cook, Bougainville and La Pérouse, among others… So mainly British and French. On the Spanish side, we remember the navigators of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It seems that Spanish ships no longer cruised on the oceans in the eighteenth century.Forgotten Felipe Gonzalez de Ahedo or Domingo Boenechea? Forgotten Malaspina? And yet Alejandro Malaspina made a journey of 4 years and 3 months that can be compared to the Lapérouse expedition, bringing back an almost complete and healthy crew. Only a few men did not return, such as the botanist Antonio de Pineda.Like Lapérouse, Malaspina was a humanist but he had the misfortune of being too far ahead of his time, which earned him a sentence of 10 years in prison on his return from Spain, instead of the expected praise. The charges against him: being a revolutionary and conspiring against the Spanish Empire.
Who was Alejandro Malaspina?
Who is this extraordinary navigator? Why has he fallen into oblivion? Alessandro Malespina was born on November 5, 1754, in Mulazzo in Tuscany. He died on April 9, 1810 in Pontremoli, Tuscany.He was an Italian of noble lineage, his parents were the Marquis Carlo Morelo and Caterina Meli-Puli di Soragna. The young Alejandro spent his adolescence, from 1762 to 1765, with his uncle, viceroy of Sicily, and followed religious studies, even entering the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. He does not take his vows.
We find him in Valletta, a port of Malta, where he was introduced to the art of navigation. After the death of his father, he moved to Spain, where his noble origins allowed him, in November 1774, to enter the Royal Navy as a midshipman (in Spanish). He was 20 years old at the time. He was therefore in Cadiz (the city that housed the prestigious naval school from which the officers of the Spanish Navy had graduated and where Lapérouse landed on his return from the Hudson Bay expedition in 1782). His career evolved quickly.
In January 1775, aboard the frigate Santa Teresa, he experienced his baptism of fire off the coast of Melila, besieged by the King of Morocco. He actively participated in the conflicts against the Sultan of Morocco and the Bey of Algiers. From 1777 to 1779, he made his first ocean voyage, he was in the Philippines, before overseeing the maritime isolation of Gibraltar during the American War of Independence which took place from 1775 to 1783 (Spain being on the side of the Americans, against the English). He was promoted to frigate captain at the end of the war on the Astrea and then to frigate lieutenant on the San Julian. He plays an important role in the Moolight Battle. His ship, the San Julian, was captured by the English, but he was allowed to remain on board as a violent storm threatened the ships with running aground. Malaspina rescued the San Juan and resumed his command. The ship reconquered, he returned to Cadiz with the Spanish flag. He also had the attack on Gilbraltar in 1782 and that of Cape Spartel. At the end of the war with the United Kingdom, he was a frigate captain. From 1783, he was the subject of an investigation by the Inquisition, which accused him of walking around with his hat on his head during the prayer of the Rosary. Nor is he being prosecuted. Second captain of the frigate Asuncion, he left Cadiz in August 1783 to inform the Spanish Philippine colonies of the end of the war: a sixteen-month voyage with passage of Cape Good Hope. From 1785 onwards, he took part in several cartographic surveys in the Mediterranean. Then he took command of the Astrea for a new and hard expedition, Cape Horne, Chile, China Sea with unfortunately the death of scurvy for sixteen crew members.
In 1789, he undertook a journey of more than 4 years comparable to that of Lapérouse.
Ambrosio O’Higgins, the initiator of the Malaspina expedition
Ambrosio O’Higgins was intendant of the city of Concepcion in Chile when Lapérouse stopped there on February 21, 1786. He then proposed to the King of Spain an expedition equivalent to that of Lapérouse, which was commanded by Malaspina, whom he knew from having received him previously after a crossing of the Pacific.
O’Higgins’ life is astonishing: an Irish Catholic, the son of an old family whose land was confiscated by Oliver Cromwell, he is now a simple sharecropper fleeing persecution in his country because of his religion.
He found himself in Spain, no doubt attracted by the prospect of being able to practice his religion, but also because of the wealth of this country, which owns a large part of the Western Hemisphere. A poor immigrant with no resources, he put himself at the service of the Spanish Empire and became governor of the Kingdom of Chile and viceroy of Peru. His work in Latin America is immense and deserves a more detailed study. He was the father of Bernardo O’Higgins, who would become the first head of state of independent Chile.
Ambrosio was therefore intendant of the city of Concepción (Chile) when Lapérouse stopped there. He was not yet governor of Chile but, as intendant, he probably participated in the reception of the French navigator. Did they get on well? We only have Lapérouse’s reflections, which are not complimentary on the management of the country. He was struck by the economic slump in which Chile was struggling despite its natural wealth. Crushed by taxes, trade languishes and laziness is rampant. Taxation should be reduced: “A very small duty on an immense consumption is more profitable to the tax authorities than a duty that is too strong and destroys this same consumption.” Hostile to privileged trading companies, Lapérouse set out his liberal profession of faith: “It is in the nature of exclusive privileges to bring death or at least numbness to all branches of commerce and industry, and it belongs only to freedom to give them all the activity of which they are susceptible.” (source: Lapérouse: an explorer in the Pacific | lhistoire.fr).
It was probably this visit of Lapérouse to Concepcion that led O’Higgins to propose to the king an equivalent expedition commanded by Ambrosio Malaspina. She left three years later, from the city of Cádiz.
Source on Ambrosio O’Higgins: From Emigrant to Viceroy: The Life of Ambrosio O’Higgins — History is Now Magazine, Podcasts, Blog & Books | Modern International and American History
The beginnings of the expedition
Malaspina was an experienced captain both in the field of navigation and in the management of men when he was appointed by his government to take command of a scientific and political expedition. It is remarkable for its duration and the fact that the crew was brought back almost to its full strength. The death of his men who died of scurvy during his previous journey undoubtedly prompted him to be cautious afterwards, in feeding the crew but also in navigation so as not to endanger the two ships. The project received the approval of Carlos III. But, at the time of Malaspina’s departure, Carlos III, deceased, was replaced by Carlos IV, whose painting by Goya depicting him surrounded by his family is well known.
Two corvettes were then built in Cadiz, La Découverte and L’Audacieuse
Malaspina commands La Découverte, Bustamante is chosen to command L’Audacieuse
Bustamante was born in Madrid on April 1, 1759. He was an aspirant at the Military Academy of Cadiz a few years before Malaspina. He then embarked for the Philippines but, attacked by the British, he was captured and taken prisoner in England.
Who is José Joachim de Toranzo de Bustamante y Guerra, Malaspina’s second-in-command?
In 1796, Bustamante was appointed Governor of Paraguay and Montevideo. Taken prisoner again in 1803 by the English, he was released, which earned him a court-martial, of which he was acquitted. Appointed Governor of Guatemala at a time of great independence activity (1810-1819), he confronted the local constitutionalists who harshly repressed the insurgents, and he opposed the liberal constitution of 1812. He was dismissed in August 1817 and returned to Spain in 1819 where he died in 1825.
Thanks to Anne-Marie Guillot, our member, who wrote this article at our request
See you next month to get to know this navigator and his expedition around the world from 1789 to 1794 comparable to the one carried out by Lapérouse 3 years earlier.