11 Expedition of Francisco de Eliza

In 1791 a new exploration expedition was sent to the north, led this time by Francisco de Eliza, the new commander of the Nootka establishment who would travel aboard the San Carlos and be accompanied by the schooner Santa Saturnina, which was under the command of José María Narváez. The ships sailed to Nootka, whence they left in early May 1791 after exploring the Clayoquot inlet for about two weeks. The San Carlos sailed the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the port of Córdova, while the Santa Saturnina spent several weeks exploring the inlet that they named Boca de Carrasco (now Barkley Inlet), in honor of the explorer Juan Carrasco. The two ships met in Esquimalt Bay in mid-June, where Eliza gave instructions to the pilot Juan

Pantoja y Arriaga to go explore the strait of Haro with the Santa Saturnina. From there it went to Vancouver Island and San Juan Island, to then return to the northeast and sail along the coast of several islands of the Gulf located in what was then called the Canal de Nuestra Señora del Rosario (current Strait of Georgia). From there it sailed east until arriving near Island Lummi (called by the natives Sa nam ao, which means ‘high mountain’), at the northern end of the Rosario Strait. Afterwards they returned to Esquimalt, thus carrying out the orders given by Eliza.^[1]

Eliza’s base of operations then moved to the southern part of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to the port of La Quadra (now Discovery port). While he remained there with the San Carlos, Narváez went with the Santa Saturnina to explore the Strait of Rosario, then sailed north with the intention of getting to know the Strait of Georgia. During the exploration of the said strait, the crew of the Santa Saturnina observed abundant outflows of fresh water, from which they deduced they were near the mouth of a large river, although they could not determine its location (it was the Fraser River). When the Santa Saturnina returned to the port of Quadra, there were so many sick men, including Eliza, that they decided not to continue with the explorations, and instead they sailed towards the Olympic peninsula until they reached a good port that they named Los Angeles, from which they went to the bay of Núñez Gaona.

Although Quimper had already warned in the previous expedition about the strategic importance of the Bay of Núñez Gaona, it would be the first officer of the San Carlos, Juan Pantoja y Arriaga, who would provide the first descriptions of the port. He declared its poor conditions for anchorage, and noted in his navigation Diary that about four miles west of the port of Núñez Gaona was the Punta de Martínez. Nearby was a small and flat island where they saw a large village, “to whose captains they give the name of Tutusi and Tatacuu.”^[2] From Núñez Gaona, the San Carlos sailed to Nootka, but the Santa Saturnina, unable to sail against the wind, set out on its way back to Monterrey. When it got there, in September 1791, it encountered the two ships of Alejandro Malaspina’s expedition that had just returned from trying to find the so-called Northwest Passage.