For Angola fort, see Fortaleza de São Miguel
Fort San Miguel was a Spanish fortification built at Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, by Esteban José Martínez in 1789. It can be considered the first regular colony in British Columbia. It was abandoned by Martínez the same year, after the Nootka Controversy, and rebuilt one year later, in 1790, by Pere d'Alberní i Teixidor, a Catalan soldier from Tortosa, who served the Spanish Crown in the First Free Company of Volunteers of Catalonia along with 80 other men of the same origin. They arrived to the region in the Francisco de Eliza's expedition. The Catalan volunteers left the fort in 1792. In 1795 it was finally abandoned after the Nootka Convention came in force, and the region became a part of the British Empire.
See also
- History of British Columbia
- Esteban José Martínez
- Pere d'Alberní i Teixidor
- Free Company of Volunteers of Catalonia
