Revisiting the Malaspina Expedition: Cultural Contacts and Contexts
Category: Book
| Title | Revisiting the Malaspina Expedition: Cultural Contacts and Contexts |
|---|---|
| Author | Anne Salmond, Mercedes Camino, Phyllis S. Herda, James Braund, Guest editor and preface: José Colmeiro |
| Year | 2011 |
| Publisher | The University of Auckland |
| ISBN | ISSN 1177 8229 |
| Language | English |
| Format | Academic papers |
| Online resource | YES, in PDF format |
| Topic | Malapsina, Malaspina Expedition, Italian seamen, Italian explorers, |
Alejandro (Alessandro) Malaspina was a Tuscan born explorer who worked as a Spanish naval officer. His 1789-1794 scientific expedition to the Pacific (the Malaspina Expedition) took him briefly to New Zealand, 20 years after Captain Cook. In February 1793 the Italian explorer, leading the Spanish expedition of two ships, Descubierta and Altrevida, called at the northern entrance to Dusky Sound, but did not enter. Although Malaspina and his cartographer Felipe Bauzá y Cañas explored parts of Doubtful Sound, the voyage made little contribution to knowledge of the New Zealand coast, except perhaps for charting the fiord Doubtful Sound (which Cook and his men had not done).
Revisiting the Malaspina Expedition: Cultural Contacts and Contexts contains 4 essays (plus preface) about the Malaspina Expedition in the South Pacific, including its brief presence in New Zealand.
James Braund, in his essay More Famous for their Misfortunes than for their Scientific Discoveries? Malaspina’s Scientists and their Contribution to his Expedition writes:
"The only landing that actually did take place in the course of Malaspina’s visit to New Zealand was extremely short –no more than several hours– and was undertaken by just a handful of men in the Descubierta’s armed pinnace under the command of the junior officer Felipe Bauzá." (Page 70)
In her essay Not a Trace, however Remote, of Inhabitants: Malaspina’s Visit to Doubtful Sound, New Zealand, 25 February 1793. Anne Salmond confirms that The Malaspina Expedition meet no humans in New Zealand, but Bauzá noted on the Island that now takes his name, Bauzá island, “a plague of Mosquitoes whose bites drew a quantity of blood” – the notorious Fiordland sandfly.
Despite his short time on the New Zealand shores Malaspina is one of the explorers after whom mountains were named in the Southern Alps: Mt Malaspina (3,042m), and there is also Malaspina Reach of Doubtful Sound in Fiordland with his name.
