![]() During the summer of 1789 a number of fur trading vessels, British and American, arrived at Nootka. The Nootka Sound dispute began in 1789 when Spain sent José Martínez to occupy Nootka Sound and establish exclusive Spanish sovereignty. Britain's claims to the region were dated back to the voyage of Sir Francis Drake in 1579, and also by right of prior discovery by Captain James Cook in 1778, although the Spanish had explored and claimed the region in 1774, under Juan Pérez, and in 1775, under Bruno de Heceta and Bodega y Quadra. Other European powers did not recognize the Inter caetera, and even Spain and Portugal only adhered to it when it was useful and convenient. Spain interpreted it in the widest possible sense, deducing that it gave them full sovereignty. In relation to other states the agreement was legally ineffective ( res inter alios acta). With the eventual closure of the mill, the full-time population has shifted to approximately 500 permanent residents, with a population increase to approximately 1,500 in the summer.The claims of Spain dated back nearly 300 years to the papal bull of 1493 that, along with the following Treaty of Tordesillas, defined and delineated a zone of Spanish rights exclusive of Portugal. In Tahsis’s heyday the population was roughly 2,500. Tahsis also became incorporated in 1972, with the election of the first mayor and council. The road from Tahsis to Gold River was opened to the public in 1972, attracting more new families. In the 1950s, Tahsis expanded, and a bustling village took shape with two churches, a school and a travelling medical man. The first accommodations for loggers in Tahsis were floating homes, which were eventually brought ashore and set upon timber foundations. Milling provided a strong financial basis for Tahsis. The valley was cleared except for an exceptionally fine stand of timber along the Tahsis River (the heart of the village now). Gordon Gibson who persevered in the 1940s. In 1795 after the final Nootka Convention was signed in Spain, and the Spanish actually left, the natives were able to return to Nootka Island and re-build their houses at Yuquot, in place of the structures built there by the Spanish.Įxcept for the fur trade, this part of British Columbia remained largely unchanged until the early 1900s, when logging was introduced.Īlthough many companies tried unsuccessfully to open mill operations on the west coast of Vancouver Island, it was Mr. Quadra, representing the Spanish, was supposed to hand this over, as agreed in the Nootka Sound Convention, which had been signed in Spain, near Madrid, by the Spanish Prime Minister and the English Ambassador in 1790. Vancouver had come to Nootka to take possession of land that an Englishman, John Meares, claimed he had bought on Nootka Island from Chiefs Maquinna and Callicum in 1788. (With the passage of time, the “Quadra” part was dropped). On the way back to Nootka Island, from Tahsis, Vancouver named the island just visited, “Quadra and Vancouver’s Island”. Bodega provided the “Eatables” and Vancouver the “Drinkables” while Maquinna and his people provided most of the entertainment, including a potlatch. In 1792, Captain Juan Bodega y Quadra of Spain and Captain George Vancouver of England paid honour to Maquinna, as the most important chief in Nootka Sound, by visiting him at his magnificent house in Tahsis. Each chief had the right to build a house in Yuquot, Kleeptee and Tahsis, the three most important, resource rich sites. Maquinna was ranked as First Chief, with Callicum of Tahsis ranked second. Some time before Captain Cook visited Yuquot in 1778, Chief “Maquinna” negotiated the “Yuquot-Tahsis” Confederacy with the chiefs along the Inlet and then also with the chief from Tahsis. Yet another advantage for the village of Tahsis was that it was near an excellent salmon river. At the head of the Inlet, “Tahsis” or “the gateway” led to a significant trade route, which led over land and the Nimpkish River to “Xwalkw” or “Cheslakee’s” village (as Vancouver called it) on the East coast of what would later become “Vancouver’s Island”. Fifteen hundred to two thousand years ago native villages developed all along the Tahsis Inlet due to population increase on Nootka Island, where “Yuquot” (in “Friendly Cove”, as Cook called it), has a more than four thousand year history. ![]()
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