Perez returned to Mexico but was ordered to take the Santiago north again the following year, this time under the command of his superior officer, Bruno Heceta. With the Santiago sailed a minuscule thirty-six-foot schooner, the Sonora, under the command of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra. Somewhere off the coast of present-day Washington, a landing party was dispatched from each ship. Heceta’s party took formal possession of the Pacific Northwest for Spain. The party sent ashore by Bodega to fill water casks was massacred by Natives.
