Alessandro Malaspina
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Alessandro Malaspina (also found as Alexandro and Alejandro) (November 5, 1754 - April 9, 1810) was an Italian-Spanish naval officer and explorer. Under a royal commission, he undertook a scientific expedition around the world in 1789, and explored the Pacific Ocean and the west coast of Spain's North American possessions.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
Alessandro Malaspina was born in Mulazzo, a small independent principality ruled by his family, then part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. His parents were the Marquis Carlo Morello and Caterina Meli Lupi di Soragna. During 1762-1765, his family lived in Palermo with his uncle, the viceroy of Sicily. In 1765-1773 he studied in Spain's Royal Naval Academy in Cádiz and Clementine College in Rome. He was accepted into the Order of Malta and learned sailing. In 1774, he joined the Royal Navy of Spain.
In January 1775 Malaspina took part of the expedition to help Melilla, which was under siege by Moroccans and later participated the siege of Algiers. In 1777-1779, aboard the frigate Astrea, he made a round trip voyage to the Philippines. In January 1780 he was in the battle of Cape Santa Maria. In 1782 he was denounced to the Spanish inquisition, as suspected of heresy, but was not apprehended. The same September he was in the attempt to take Gibraltar and in December in the fighting in Cape Espartel. In 1783-1784 he undertook a second voyage to the Philippines.
In 1785 Malaspina turned to hydrographic surveys on some areas of the Spanish coast. From 1786 to May 1788 he made a commercial circumnavigation on behalf of the Royal Philippine Company.
[edit] Voyages of exploration
In September 1788 Malaspina joined forces with José de Bustamante y Guerra and together they approached the Spanish government to organize an expedition to visit the Spanish possessions in America and Asia. The expeditions of two specifically built corvettes, Descubierta and Atrevida, sailed from Cádiz on July 30, 1789.
In 1791 the king of Spain gave Malaspina an order to search for Northwest Passage. He surveyed the Alaska coast to the Prince William Sound. At Yakutat Bay, the expedition made contact with the Tlingit. Spanish scholars made a study of the tribe, recording information on social mores, language, economy, warfare methods, and burial practices. Artists with the expedition, Tomas de Suria and José Cardero, produced portraits of tribal members and scenes of Tlingit daily life. A glacier between Yakutat Bay and Icy Bay was subsequently named after Malaspina. The botanist Luis Née also accompanied the expedition, on which he collected and described numerous new plants.
During the return to Mexico, Malaspina's expedition spent a month at the Spanish outpost in Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island, primarily to establish a Spanish naval presence in support of Spain's land claims. In addition to making the first European circumnavigation of Vancouver Island and exploring Puget Sound, the expedition made a study of the Nootka. The two ships sailed south to the Spanish settlement and mission at Monterey, California where scholars examined the customs of the Chumash tribe.
After resupplying in Acapulco, Mexico in 1792, Malaspina's two ships returned to Vancouver Island. They then explored the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of Georgia. The expedition sailed into the western Pacific, exploring and charting the coasts of the Marshall Islands, the Marianas, New Zealand, Australia, and the Philippines. On September 21, 1794, by way of South America, Malaspina and his expedition returned to Cádiz, Spain.
[edit] Political controversy and exile
Malaspina examined the political situation in the Spanish colonies in the Pacific Ocean. He decided that Spain should form a confederation of states bound by international trade. In September 1795 he sent Spanish government his proposals to influence government policy. Because he criticized Prime Minister Manuel Godoy, Godoy had Malaspina arrested on November 23 accused of plotting against the state. After an inconclusive trial on April 20, 1796, Charles IV of Spain demoted Malaspina and sent him to prison in A Coruña, Galicia.
During his incarceration, Malaspina wrote essays in aesthetics, economics and literature. Because of his political conflict with Spain, his seven-volume account of the 1789-94 expeditions was suppressed and remained unpublished until the late 19th century.
Francesco Melzi d'Eril and Napoleon campaigned for Malaspina's release. He was finally freed at the end of 1802 but was exiled from Spain. He left for Mulazzo through Genoa and settled in Pontremoli and got involved with local politics. In December he was entrusted to organize a quarantine between Italian Republic and the Kingdom of Etruria during a yellow fever epidemic in Livorno. In 1805 he received the title of Advising Auditor of the Council of State of the Kingdom of Italy. The queen of Etruria received him at court in December 1806. Shortly he was admitted to the Columban Society in Florence.
Alessandro Malaspina died April 9, 1810.
