scientific tasks including astronomical observations, and gravity and magnetic measurements. The expedition arrived in Acapulco in March 1791. Galiano was put in charge of a group of Malaspina's scientific officers assigned to stay in Mexico for a year. Malaspina's letter to the viceroy of New Spain, Juan Vicente de Güemes, Count of Revillagigedo, read in part: Under the orders of Ship Lieutenant Don Dionisio Galiano, he, together with [Novales, Pineda, and Olavide], will proceed to [Mexico] ... [Galiano] will be charged with coordinating in that capital, and later in Spain, all the notes of our past tasks ... Besides, he must extract all that information conducive to giving an exact idea of the former and present state of [New Spain]. Thus Galiano remained in Mexico, compiling the expedition's hydrographic and astronomical data, and making maps. He also investigated the colonial archives and collected information useful in assessing the state of the colony. This was one of the political tasks of the Malaspina expedition, for which Malaspina and his officers had royal authority above that of the viceroy, authorizing access to any and all documents they might think relevant. He spent about a year at this task, while the Malaspina expedition sailed to Alaska and Vancouver Island. 1792 voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana Malaspina's voyage to Alaska was for the purpose of determining whether a rumored Northwest Passage existed there. Finding none, he returned to Mexico, stopping at Nootka Sound, on Vancouver Island, and Monterey, California. The Spanish had been exploring the Pacific Northwest for some years, and just as Malaspina was returning to Mexico another Spanish expedition, led by Francisco de Eliza, had discovered a large body of water inland beyond the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This was the Strait of Georgia. The pilots José María Narváez and Juan Carrasco had not had time to fully explore it, but had noted a promising opening leading to the east (which turned out to be the estuary of the Fraser River, which from offshore appeared to be a channel). It was the last reasonable chance of a possible Northwest Passage. One of the ships of the exploring party, the schooner Santa Saturnina, had been unable to return to Nootka and instead sailed south to Monterey, where Malaspina had just arrived. Thus Malaspina learned about the Strait of Georgia before the viceroy himself, who had been preparing