Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America, 1792: Juan Francisco de la Bodega Y Quadra and the Nootka Sound Controversy by Freeman M. Tovell

 OHQ vol. 114, no. 1 nalist Fred Leeson (Rose City Justice: A Legal History of Portland, Oregon, OHS Press, 1998). Lansing and Leeson teamed up to write a history of the most populous and influential — and often controversial — county in Oregon; and while a history of an Oregon county might sound dull,Multnomah is far from it.The book is a history not only of county officials and important county commission decisions but also of natural disasters, vice crime, bribery and scandal, tragic homicide, and “Mean Girls.” The chapters are broken into small episodes, separated by virtual “meanwhiles,” very much like Lansing’s Portland. The first chapter,“The Most Important Vote of the Century,” opens in 1974 and describes the Multnomah County Commission’s decision to support a land-use plan that included light-rail transit. The chapters that follow run chronologically,beginning in 1792 with George Vancouver’s expedition and ending in 2010 with the county, like many government agencies, in financial crisis. Subsequent chapters cover the influential and sometimes controversial elections, activities, and accomplishments of the county commissioners, county sheriffs, and other memorable county officials. Readers may recognize the names Starr,Marquam,Corbett, Ladd, Holman, Bigelow, Schrunk, Gleason, Clark, Roberts, and Blumenauer. Multnomah County’s violent past is also chronicled, including the county’s first hanging in 1859, the tragic disappearance of the Martin family in 1958, and the gruesome murders of teenage sweethearts Larry Peyton and Beverly Allen in 1960. Lansing and Leeson also discuss the bidding scandal that shrouded with controversy the construction of the Ross Island and Sellwood bridges and the replacement of the Burnside Bridge. They cover in detail the vice scandal of 1956,Diane Linn’s acrimonious tenure as county commission chair from 2001 to 2006, and the frequent efforts to consolidate Multnomah County and Portland governments. Lansing and Leeson effectively use many available secondary sources. Their use of interviews, news reports, and county and state records is expected, but nevertheless impressive . The greatest value of Multnomah is as a reference work of the county’s and Portland’s often connected histories. The appendices are incredibly informative. They include the effects of Measure 5, changes to the county charter, and a chronological list of county officials. Readers will be drawn in by the stories throughout Multnomah that make up the county’s colorful past. Multnomah is well written and indexed and is recommended not only for research but also for the home library. It should sit next to MacColl,Abbott,and,well, Lansing and Leeson. Robert C. Donnelly Gonzaga University Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America, 1792: Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra and the Nootka Sound Controversy translated by Freeman M. Tovell foreword by Chief Michael Maquinna The Arthur H. Clark Company, an imprint of the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2012. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. 192 pages. $34.95 cloth. The Arthur H. Clark Company has been a publishing bastion of Western American history since 1902. This volume of Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America, 1792 is the first English-language edition of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra’s February 1793 report for the viceroy of New Spain recounting his sojourn on the northwest coast of America the previous summer and his dealings with the British explorer George Vancouver. Freeman Tovell’s translation supplements his 2008 biography of Bodega, At the Far Reaches of Empire (UBC Press). Two other experts on  Reviews Spanish exploration and empire, Robin Inglis and Iris Engstrand,have helped him bring this text to publication. Bodega’s expedition involved diplomacy, exploration, and scientific investigation. His ostensible remit was to proceed to Nootka Sound (on what is now Vancouver Island) to meet Vancouver and implement the first two articles of the Nootka Convention of 1790, which settled the diplomatic crisis between the two countries over commercial, navigation , and property rights on the West Coast of North America. The crisis was precipitated by the arrest of British fur traders by a Spanish naval officer at Nootka Sound in 1789, and Bodega was instructed to restore to the British “buildings and tracts of land”that the Spanish had supposedly confiscated there and nearby (p.15...

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