In the first part, we mentioned the beginnings of the departure of Malaspina expedition. Let us now talk about the most remarkable period: the expedition around the world, four years after that of Lapérouse
An expedition inspired by that of Lapérouse (1789-1794)
We have seen how Ambrosio Malaspina who had received Laperouse in Concepcion, then proposed a shipping to Carlos III.
The two ships leave Cadix in July 1789.
A team of scientists is part of the expedition in charge of cartography, study of animals, plants, minerals and astronomical observations, accompanied by the essential draughtsmen. Among them were celebrities such as the painting professor José del Pozo, the painters José Guío and Fernando Brambila assisted by the draughtsman Juan Ravenet (who joined them in Acapulco in 1791), the Franco-Spanish botanist Luis Née, the naturalists Antonio Pineda and Thaddäus Haenke.
For the first time, Spain, a trading nation, mainly concerned with bringing back treasures from its colonies, invested in a mission of pure knowledge.
The aim is also to visit foreign settlements linked to the collection of furs in cold areas. Malaspina also made stops in Spanish cities in America, probably for political purposes, to report on their condition to the Spanish administration. There are some similarities in the respective routes of Lapérouse and Malaspina, but one of the latter’s objectives (to visit Spanish cities) took him on different paths in the South Pacific.
Malaspina made a series of stopovers: Canary Islands, Montevideo, Falklands, Cape Horn. After stops in Spanish ports (Concepcion, Valparaiso, Callao, Lima, Acapulco), Malaspina sailed up to the Gulf of Alaska having been ordered to try to discover the mythical Northwest Passage. He contented himself with exploring the southern coast of Alaska, unwilling to take risks, naming some sites with a few Spanish names and convinced that this passage did not exist. A large glacier bears the name Malaspina. He stopped at Yukatat Bay, recognized by Lapérouse, and then measured the height of Mount Elie in present-day Quebec.
He recognizes Puget Sound, a very important entrance pass to Vancouver Bay not spotted by Lapérouse who had passed too far offshore.
Malaspina can thus complete the mapping outside the Spanish areas. Then heading for Manila, a Spanish possession rich in spices. Then sail south, New Zealand with the mapping of Doubtful Sound. Then Port Jackson (Sydney) and stop at the Vava’u archipelago in Tonga.
These islands had been discovered by another Spaniard, Francisco Mourelle, and La Pérouse had also passed through them. Finally heading for Tacahano in Chile and returning to Cadiz on September 21, 1794.
We should also note the stop at Monterey, which had received La Pérouse a few years earlier
A return without ovations
Malaspina is back in Cadix after 4 years and 10 mounths. This expedition, of exceptional length (in time and distance) was a success but his ideas were too humanistic. This man, steeped in the theories of the Age of Enlightenment, returns to a frozen monarchical Spain. He professed liberal ideas for the Spanish colonies recommending a greater autonomy.
In September 1795, Malaspina sent his writings to the Spanish government, trying to exert influence on it, but he is accused by Manuel Godoy, the Spanish secretary of state, of spreading revolutionary ideas. He makes the collections brought back by Malaspina disappear to prove that he had done nothing more than a propaganda tour.
However, an Atlas is kept at the Directorate of Hydrography of the Ministry of the Navy, in Madrid, which is published with 34 navigational charts. But some astronomical observations and natural history are lost forever. Part of the botanical collections had a better fate: Luis Née’s herbarium was given to the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid and many species were described thanks to these materials by Antonio José Cavanilles, who was its director at the time.
At the end of a mock trial, Malaspina was sent to prison in the San Antón Castle in Coruña for ten years. At the end of 1802, thanks to pressure from Napoleon, he was finally released and exiled to Italy in Pontremoli, in Etruria, his native city.
A career in Italy
In 1804, he moved to Milan, capital of the Italian Republic. In December of that year, the government of the Republic commissioned him to organize the quarantine between the Republic and the Kingdom of Etruria on the occasion of an epidemic of yellow fever in Livorno. In 1805, he was appointed a member of the Council of State of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. In December 1806, he moved to Florence, to the court of the Kingdom of Etruria. Alessandro Malaspina died in Pontremoli in 1810.
His work is recognized after a century of oblivion
Most of Malaspina’s work remained unpublished in 1885, when the ship’s captain Pedro de Novo y Colson published Viaje político-científico alrededor del mundo de las corbetas Descubierta y Atrevida al mando de los capitanes de navío D. Alejandro Malaspina y D. José Bustamante y Guerra desde 1789 a 1794.
Anne Marie Guillot