Colonial Despatches

Captain Don Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, born on June 3, 1743 in Lima, Peru, was a Spanish naval officer and explorer in charge of Spanish naval activity on the Northwest Coast in the late 18th century. In 1792, he took part in negotiations with Captain George Vancouver to implement the results of the Nootka Convention of 1790.1 Although they were on opposite sides of negotiations, Vancouver spoke very highly of Quadra's character.2 Bodega Bay in Northern California, Quadra Island, and Quadra Street in Victoria, BC, were all named after Quadra.3

Quadra died suddenly in 1794 in Mexico City, Mexico.4

• 1. Christon I. Archer, Bodega y Quadra, Juan Francisco de la The Canadian Encyclopedia.
• 2. G. P. V. Akrigg and H. B. Akrigg, British Columbia Place Names, 3rd Edition (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), 219.
• 3. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 483.
• 4. Christon I. Archer, Bodega y Quadra, Juan Francisco de la The Canadian Encyclopedia.