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Juan de Fuca’s Strait: Voyages in the Waterway of Forgotten Dreams
kd lang's overwrought version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah was all very well. And it was great to have local, spoken word poet Shane Koyczan recite his paean to how nice we are as Canadians at the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics. But imagine the bewilderment of the world-as well as 99.9% of British Columbians-if Olympic organizers had commissioned the province's foremost maritime historian, Barry Gough, to conceive the opening ceremonies and tell the story of how modern British Columbian society began...
A public address system narrator would begin with, "Once upon a time, in a café in Venice, in April, in 1596....";
It was there and then, in a place not yet called Italy, that the English correspondence of merchant Michael Lok first attributes the earliest visit to the shores of what we now call B.C. by a European mariner, as Barry Gough has neatly outlined in the opening chapter for his 15th book, Juan de Fuca's Strait: Voyages in the Waterway of Forgotten Dreams (Harbour $32.95).
That ancient mariner is now commonly known as Juan de Fuca.
The first European mariner to have reached B.C. waters, according to written eyewitness accounts, was the Spaniard Juan Peréz in 1774, some four years before Captain James Cook famously set foot at Nootka Sound in 1778, accompanied by British crewman that included George Vancouver and William Bligh. But, as Barry Gough now makes clear, there is ample evidence to assert that the first "European discoverer"; of B.C. was actually a Greek explorer named Apostolos Valerianos, sailing for Spain under the name of Juan de Fuca.
In Juan de Fuca's Strait, Gough carefully relates how Juan de Fuca was an old man when he met an English dealer in fine fabrics, Michael Lok, in Venice, in 1596. Lok, who also spoke French, Spanish, Italian and Latin, was acutely aware that major seafaring nations were hoping to discover a "northwest passage"; to the riches of the Orient.
Lok was therefore fascinated by Juan de Fuca's account of a voyage made "up the backside"; of North America, in 1592. The transplanted Greek, from the island of Kefalonia-the largest of the Ionian Islands along the Adriatic Coast, a place "held in fee"; by the city state of Venice, acquired in 1500-provided Lok with a detailed verbal summary of a voyage as far north as the 48th parallel, at which point he entered a waterway (that now bears his name) that he called the Strait of Nova Spain.
Lok, as an English consul, excitedly sent this news to England. The Greek/Spanish mariner was offering his services to the Queen of England for 100 pounds to help England discover the Northwest Passage. Specifically, Juan de Fuca agreed to serve as a pilot if England provided a ship of forty tons. A pilot in a Spanish vessel, as Gough explains, corresponded to a first mate on English and American ships, second in command.
But Juan de Fuca also wanted the English to provide compensation for goods stolen from him by Captain Cavendish in 1587 when, on a return voyage from the Philippines and China on the 700-ton Manila galleon Santa Anna, Juan de Fuca was overtaken by Cavendish who stole his cargo valued at some 60,000 ducats, near Cabo San Lucas, where Juan de Fuca was put ashore with food and handguns.
Unfortunately for the English, Juan de Fuca's request for restitution could not be resolved quickly. Juan de Fuca returned to Kefalonia but continued to communicate with Lok, using his native Greek. When Lok wrote to Juan de Fuca in Kefalonia in 1602 and no reply was received, the Englishman presumed, perhaps correctly, that Juan de Fuca must have died.
The written evidence that Juan de Fuca was the first European to discover the strait between Vancouver Island and Washington State that bears his name is provided in a remarkable compilation of travel literature called Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and others in 1625.
Maritime historian Samuel Purchas based his entry about Juan de Fuca on letters written by Michael Lok, who had written to the Lord Treasurer, to Sir Walter Raleigh and to Master Richard Hakluyt, asking them to send 100 pounds to bring Juan de Fuca to England.
As recorded by Samuel Purchas, the Viceroy of Mexico had sent Juan de Fuca "with a small Caravela and a Pinnace, armed with Mariners only"; along the coast of New Spain and California in 1592. He sailed "until he came to the Latitude of 47 degrees and there finding that the land trended North and North-East, with a broad Inlet of Sea, between 47 and 48 degrees of Latitude, he entered there into, sayling therein more than twentie days, and found that land trending still sometime North-West and North, and also East and South-Westward, and very much broader sea than was at the said entrance, and that he passed by divers Illands in that Sayling. And that at the entrance of this said Strait, there is on the North-West coast thereof, a great Hedland or Iland, with an exceedingly high Pinacle, or spired Rocke, like a piller thereupon. Also he said, that he went on the land in divers places, and that he saw some people of Land, clad in Beasts' skins; and that the Land is very fruitful and rich of Gold, Silver, Pearle, and other things, like Nova Spania. And also he said, that being entered thus farre into the said Strait, and being come into the North Sea already, and finding the Sea wide enough everywhere and to be about thirtie or fortie leagues wide in the mouth of the Straits, where he entered he thought he had now well discharged his office and done the things he was sent to do.";
It is important to note that Juan de Fuca claimed the entranceway to the great inlet between 47º and 48º was marked by "an exceedingly high pinnacle or spired rock, like a pillar, thereupon.";
The coastal historian Captain John T. Walbran later corroborated this report in his British Columbia Coast Names. He wrote, "This is substantially correct; the island is Tatooche, and the spired rock, now known as De Fuca's pillar, 150 feet high, stands in solitary grandeur, a little off shore, about two miles southwards of Tatooche Island.";
The first English mariner to recognize Juan de Fuca's strait was Captain Charles Barkley on the Imperial Eagle in 1787-almost two centuries after Juan de Fuca's voyage. He consequently named Juan de Fuca Strait because it lay above the 47th parallel, where Lok's report of Juan de Fuca's exploration had designated it to be.
Frances Barkley's diary of her husband's 1787 voyage recorded the following perceptions: "The entrance appeared to be about four leagues in width, and remained about that width as far as the eye can see. Capt. Barkley at once recognized it as the long lost strait of Juan de Fuca, which Captain Cook had so emphatically stated did not exist.";
In 1847, American historian Robert Greenhow published a history of Oregon and California in which he supplied a summary of Juan de Fuca's life based upon the English and Spanish translations of the correspondence between de Fuca and Lok. In 1854, another American historian named Alexander S. Taylor took up the narrative by asking the American consul in the Ionian Islands, A.S. York, to gather any and all material concerning Juan de Fuca and his family.
York provided information gleaned from The Lives of Glorious Men of Cephalonia written and published in Venice in October 1843 by Rev. Anthimos Mazarakis, a Kefalonian. The book had been translated into Italian by Tomazeo. Taylor published two articles in the September and October 1859 issues of Hutchings' California Magazine that recounted what he had gleaned about Juan de Fuca's life.
According to Taylor's research, the ancestors of John Phokas (Fucas) fled Constantinople in 1453 and found refuge in the Ionian Islands. One brother named Andronikos Phokas remained as the head of Phokas family. Another brother Emmanuel Phokas was born in Constantinople in 1435 and departed in 1470 for Kefalonia. Juan de Fuca was one of four sons born to Emmanuel Phokas, also known as Phokas Valerianos to distinguish him from the Phokas family in Argostoli. Emmanuel Phokas settled in a valley in southwestern Kefalonia, at Elios. In that valley was situated the village of Valeriano, now vanished. Most of the island's buildings were destroyed by an earthquake in the early 1950s. A statue of Juan de Fuca has since been erected. The neighboring island of Ithaki is the legendary home of Odysseus; Kefalonia boasts Apostolos Valerianos (Juan de Fuca).
Juan de Fuca's Strait: Voyages in the Waterway of Forgotten Dreams represents a synthesis of forty years of research by Barry Gough into maritime exploration of the West Coast. After capably recounting this tale of the ancient mariner, Gough proceeds to illuminate the voyages of mariners in his wake, such as James Cook, Manuel Quimper, José MarÃa Narváez, George Vancouver, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra and Dionisio Alcalá Galiano. 978-1-55017-573-8-6
A public address system narrator would begin with, "Once upon a time, in a café in Venice, in April, in 1596....";
It was there and then, in a place not yet called Italy, that the English correspondence of merchant Michael Lok first attributes the earliest visit to the shores of what we now call B.C. by a European mariner, as Barry Gough has neatly outlined in the opening chapter for his 15th book, Juan de Fuca's Strait: Voyages in the Waterway of Forgotten Dreams (Harbour $32.95).
That ancient mariner is now commonly known as Juan de Fuca.
The first European mariner to have reached B.C. waters, according to written eyewitness accounts, was the Spaniard Juan Peréz in 1774, some four years before Captain James Cook famously set foot at Nootka Sound in 1778, accompanied by British crewman that included George Vancouver and William Bligh. But, as Barry Gough now makes clear, there is ample evidence to assert that the first "European discoverer"; of B.C. was actually a Greek explorer named Apostolos Valerianos, sailing for Spain under the name of Juan de Fuca.
In Juan de Fuca's Strait, Gough carefully relates how Juan de Fuca was an old man when he met an English dealer in fine fabrics, Michael Lok, in Venice, in 1596. Lok, who also spoke French, Spanish, Italian and Latin, was acutely aware that major seafaring nations were hoping to discover a "northwest passage"; to the riches of the Orient.
Lok was therefore fascinated by Juan de Fuca's account of a voyage made "up the backside"; of North America, in 1592. The transplanted Greek, from the island of Kefalonia-the largest of the Ionian Islands along the Adriatic Coast, a place "held in fee"; by the city state of Venice, acquired in 1500-provided Lok with a detailed verbal summary of a voyage as far north as the 48th parallel, at which point he entered a waterway (that now bears his name) that he called the Strait of Nova Spain.
Lok, as an English consul, excitedly sent this news to England. The Greek/Spanish mariner was offering his services to the Queen of England for 100 pounds to help England discover the Northwest Passage. Specifically, Juan de Fuca agreed to serve as a pilot if England provided a ship of forty tons. A pilot in a Spanish vessel, as Gough explains, corresponded to a first mate on English and American ships, second in command.
But Juan de Fuca also wanted the English to provide compensation for goods stolen from him by Captain Cavendish in 1587 when, on a return voyage from the Philippines and China on the 700-ton Manila galleon Santa Anna, Juan de Fuca was overtaken by Cavendish who stole his cargo valued at some 60,000 ducats, near Cabo San Lucas, where Juan de Fuca was put ashore with food and handguns.
Unfortunately for the English, Juan de Fuca's request for restitution could not be resolved quickly. Juan de Fuca returned to Kefalonia but continued to communicate with Lok, using his native Greek. When Lok wrote to Juan de Fuca in Kefalonia in 1602 and no reply was received, the Englishman presumed, perhaps correctly, that Juan de Fuca must have died.
The written evidence that Juan de Fuca was the first European to discover the strait between Vancouver Island and Washington State that bears his name is provided in a remarkable compilation of travel literature called Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and others in 1625.
Maritime historian Samuel Purchas based his entry about Juan de Fuca on letters written by Michael Lok, who had written to the Lord Treasurer, to Sir Walter Raleigh and to Master Richard Hakluyt, asking them to send 100 pounds to bring Juan de Fuca to England.
As recorded by Samuel Purchas, the Viceroy of Mexico had sent Juan de Fuca "with a small Caravela and a Pinnace, armed with Mariners only"; along the coast of New Spain and California in 1592. He sailed "until he came to the Latitude of 47 degrees and there finding that the land trended North and North-East, with a broad Inlet of Sea, between 47 and 48 degrees of Latitude, he entered there into, sayling therein more than twentie days, and found that land trending still sometime North-West and North, and also East and South-Westward, and very much broader sea than was at the said entrance, and that he passed by divers Illands in that Sayling. And that at the entrance of this said Strait, there is on the North-West coast thereof, a great Hedland or Iland, with an exceedingly high Pinacle, or spired Rocke, like a piller thereupon. Also he said, that he went on the land in divers places, and that he saw some people of Land, clad in Beasts' skins; and that the Land is very fruitful and rich of Gold, Silver, Pearle, and other things, like Nova Spania. And also he said, that being entered thus farre into the said Strait, and being come into the North Sea already, and finding the Sea wide enough everywhere and to be about thirtie or fortie leagues wide in the mouth of the Straits, where he entered he thought he had now well discharged his office and done the things he was sent to do.";
It is important to note that Juan de Fuca claimed the entranceway to the great inlet between 47º and 48º was marked by "an exceedingly high pinnacle or spired rock, like a pillar, thereupon.";
The coastal historian Captain John T. Walbran later corroborated this report in his British Columbia Coast Names. He wrote, "This is substantially correct; the island is Tatooche, and the spired rock, now known as De Fuca's pillar, 150 feet high, stands in solitary grandeur, a little off shore, about two miles southwards of Tatooche Island.";
The first English mariner to recognize Juan de Fuca's strait was Captain Charles Barkley on the Imperial Eagle in 1787-almost two centuries after Juan de Fuca's voyage. He consequently named Juan de Fuca Strait because it lay above the 47th parallel, where Lok's report of Juan de Fuca's exploration had designated it to be.
Frances Barkley's diary of her husband's 1787 voyage recorded the following perceptions: "The entrance appeared to be about four leagues in width, and remained about that width as far as the eye can see. Capt. Barkley at once recognized it as the long lost strait of Juan de Fuca, which Captain Cook had so emphatically stated did not exist.";
In 1847, American historian Robert Greenhow published a history of Oregon and California in which he supplied a summary of Juan de Fuca's life based upon the English and Spanish translations of the correspondence between de Fuca and Lok. In 1854, another American historian named Alexander S. Taylor took up the narrative by asking the American consul in the Ionian Islands, A.S. York, to gather any and all material concerning Juan de Fuca and his family.
York provided information gleaned from The Lives of Glorious Men of Cephalonia written and published in Venice in October 1843 by Rev. Anthimos Mazarakis, a Kefalonian. The book had been translated into Italian by Tomazeo. Taylor published two articles in the September and October 1859 issues of Hutchings' California Magazine that recounted what he had gleaned about Juan de Fuca's life.
According to Taylor's research, the ancestors of John Phokas (Fucas) fled Constantinople in 1453 and found refuge in the Ionian Islands. One brother named Andronikos Phokas remained as the head of Phokas family. Another brother Emmanuel Phokas was born in Constantinople in 1435 and departed in 1470 for Kefalonia. Juan de Fuca was one of four sons born to Emmanuel Phokas, also known as Phokas Valerianos to distinguish him from the Phokas family in Argostoli. Emmanuel Phokas settled in a valley in southwestern Kefalonia, at Elios. In that valley was situated the village of Valeriano, now vanished. Most of the island's buildings were destroyed by an earthquake in the early 1950s. A statue of Juan de Fuca has since been erected. The neighboring island of Ithaki is the legendary home of Odysseus; Kefalonia boasts Apostolos Valerianos (Juan de Fuca).
Juan de Fuca's Strait: Voyages in the Waterway of Forgotten Dreams represents a synthesis of forty years of research by Barry Gough into maritime exploration of the West Coast. After capably recounting this tale of the ancient mariner, Gough proceeds to illuminate the voyages of mariners in his wake, such as James Cook, Manuel Quimper, José MarÃa Narváez, George Vancouver, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra and Dionisio Alcalá Galiano. 978-1-55017-573-8-6
Submitted on March 8, 2013 in By David.
