Francisco de Eliza

[2] In 1789 Eliza and several other officers were chosen by Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra to serve at San Blas, the naval station on the west coast of Mexico, then part of New Spain.

The San Blas naval department was responsible for supporting and exploring the coast north of Mexico, including Alta California and the Pacific Northwest to southern Alaska.

The viceroy of New Spain, Juan Vicente de Güemes, Count of Revillagigedo, gave Eliza command of an expedition to reoccupy the Spanish establishment at Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island.

[2] The King of Spain, Carlos IV, issued the Royal Order of April 14, 1789, requiring the establishment at Nootka Sound be maintained with "honour and firmness".

Neither the king nor Viceroy Revillagigedo nor Bodega y Quadra was aware of the abandonment of the post at Nootka until December 1789, when Martínez arrived at San Blas.

In addition to the sailing crews of the three ships, Eliza's expedition included 76 soldiers of the Free Company of Volunteers of Catalonia, under the command of Pere d'Alberni.

Salvador Fidalgo made a voyage north to visit the Russian outposts in Alaska, while Manuel Quimper examined the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

During the winter Spain had proposed to Great Britain that the Strait of Juan de Fuca could serve as the boundary between Spanish and British territory.

The San Carlos was accompanied by the small schooner, the Santa Saturnina, nicknamed La Orcasitas and under the command of José María Narváez, with Juan Carrasco as pilot.

Narváez and Eliza entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca separately, rejoining at Esquimalt (called "Cordova" by the Spanish) on June 11, 1791.

Eliza's pilots then took the Santa Saturnina and a longboat and spent ten days exploring Haro Strait and the found it opened up into a wide body of water to the north.

Eliza considered taking the San Carlos along, but his pilots convinced him of that the larger ship would find the narrow channels hazardous.

Although the idea of a Northwest Passage to the Atlantic Ocean was by this time an extremely remote possibility, the inlets of the Strait of Georgia rekindled the hope, which led to the 1792 expedition of Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdes.

[6] At the start of Narváez's voyage the Santa Saturnina passed Admiralty Inlet, the entrance to Puget Sound (called "Ensenada de Caamaño" by the Spanish).

The Spanish thus missed the opportunity of preempting the British exploration of Puget Sound, which took place a year later under George Vancouver.

[2] On July 24, 1792, Francisco de Eliza left Nootka Sound for Mexico, having completed his mission of re-establishing the Spanish outpost there.