History Browser

This watercolour by artist Sigismund Bacstrum is based on a sketch made 20 February 1793. It shows the presido at Nootka with the red and yellow Spanish flag flying over the battery at left, and the soldiers' barracks at right. (Parks Canada)

In 1789, a Nootka chief was killed while arguing with the Spanish about being allowed to trade with British ships in the region. Despite this and previous troubles, a decision was made to create a permanent base at Nootka, and a presidio, or Spanish frontier fort, was built and garrisoned.

During the early 1790s, the Spanish soldiers stationed at Nootka on the British Columbia coast suffered from cold and illness, but their commander, Pedro de Alberni, was able to restore good relations with the Nootka after earlier Spanish attacks on them.

In the summer of 1789, Ensign Martínez, the commander of a Spanish expedition on the northwest Pacific coast, built a military post at Nootka. At this point, a British merchant ship arrived with instructions to build a British post. Tempers flared and Martínez seized all the British ships.

Changing conditions in Europe during the 1790s led to the evacuation of the Spanish post at Nootka. Spain and Great Britain were allies in a war against republican France, and they agreed to abandon the northwest coast of America. In March 1795, the Spanish garrison was withdrawn.