- RBSC-ARC-1811
- Collection
- [201-?]
Collection consists of documents and maps that supported the findings in McDowell's book, Uncharted Waters: The Explorations of Jose Narvaez (1768-1840), published in 2015 by Ronsdale Press, Vancouver, BC.
All items in this collection are photocopies. The dates of the originals fall between 1788 and 1830. When available, information about the locations of the originals is specified in the file-level description.
From McDowell: "One of the least appreciated, but potentially most important set of historical documents in [RBSC] are those related to the overlooked Spanish navigator Jose Maria Narvaez (1768-1840), the first European mariner to explore the central and northern parts of what we now call the Salish Sea in 1791 -- one year before the famous captains Dionisio Alcala-Galiano, Cayetano Valdes y Bazan, and George Vancouver investigated the same inland sea. Although Narvaez's remarkable achievements and contributions were largely ignored, overlooked, or minimized until 1998, a more accurate assessment is emerging, and it has been supported significantly by the documentary information in [RBSC]."