Domingo de Bonechea sights Tauere Atoll

Background. Domingo Bernardo de Bonechea Andonaegui (1713–1775) was a Spanish Navy officer and explorer, known for attempting to incorporate Tahiti into the Spanish Empire. His exploratory voyages were commissioned by the viceroy of Peru, Manuel de Amat y Junyent, who feared that James Cook's explorations might lead to British bases from which to attack Peru.

The Voyage and Sighting. De Bonechea sailed from Callao on September 26, 1772, to establish a colony on Tahiti. On October 28, 1772, while commanding the ship Aguila, he sighted Tauere Atoll (also called Taouere or Te Putua), a small atoll of the central Tuamotu Archipelago. The Tauere passage spells the navigator's surname 'de Boenechea', a variant of Bonechea.

Aftermath. De Bonechea left Tahiti on December 20 and reached Valparaíso on February 21, 1773. He later returned to the Pacific: in 1774 the Aguila and the Jupiter left Callao on a second expedition, during which a cross inscribed Christus Vincit Carolus III imperat 1774 was erected and taken down by the British in 1777.