Quadra Island is a large island off the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Discovery Islands, in the Strathcona Regional District. Etymology In 1903, the island was named after the Peruvian Spanish navigator Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, who explored and settled the Vancouver Island area in the late 18th century. History The island was claimed by the Peruvian Spanish navigator Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra for the Spanish Empire in the 1700s. A settlement was not successfully negotiated and ownership of the island remained in dispute between Britain and the Spain in the early 1790s. The two countries nearly began a war over the issue; the confrontation became known as the Nootka Crisis. That was averted when both agreed to recognize the other's rights to the area in the first Nootka Convention in 1790, a first step to peace. Finally, the two countries signed the second Nootka Convention in 1793 and the third Convention in 1794. As per the final treaty, the Spanish dismantled their fort on Vancouver Island and left the area after both countries agreed that no permanent settlements should be established in the area neither by Spain nor by Britain, while rights of trade and shipping were to be shared by the two powers. In 1846, the Oregon Treaty was signed by the British and the U.S. to settle the question of the U.S. Oregon Territory borders. The Treaty made the 49th parallel latitude north the official border between the two countries. In order to ensure that Britain retained all of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, it was agreed that the border would swing south around that area. The Coast Salish inhabited Quadra Island when Captain George Vancouver visited and wrote about their village at Cape Mudge in 1792; he described long houses, boats and a population of roughly 300 people. The Salish were driven out by other First Nations in the late 1800s. B.C. historian Jeanette Taylor states that "the We-Wai-Kai, with roots to the north among the Kwakwaka’wakw, took over the island through a complex process of both warfare and intermarriage". They fished for salmon year-round. The We-Wai-Kai band of the Kwagiulth live in Cape Mudge today. According to the historian, they "were prohibited from buying alcohol and barred by the government from the mechanized fishing fleet until 1926. Even their