Looking at a modern map of British Columbian coastal waters, one sees the name "Juan de Fuca" among the rest of the Spanish names ; Gabriola, Quadra, Texada, Valdes, Galiano,Saturna, Haro, San Juan. There is every excuse to include it with the others as coming from the period of Spanish exploration from 1770 to 1792, but if you do, you miss one of the more interesting stories of the Spanish period. Juan de fuca dates, not from the 1790's but from a period two hundred years earlier. Somehow a Greek named Apostolos Valerianos came into tfie Spanish service in the new world. The Spaniards eitner could not get their tongues round his name or did not like it, so they renamed him Juan de Fuca. Under this new name, they sent him exploring north from their bases along the southern Mexican coast in the year 1592 - just a hundred years after Columbus. Juan de Fuca came back to report, among other things, that he had found a great strait which he believed led into the Gulf of Anian arid to the Northwest Passage. Unfortunately for Juan de Fuca, the Spanish authorities of the time believed that what other nations did not know they could not use. Along with a good deal of other information. They buried the information brought back by Fuca. How do we know then, that Juan de Fuca actually did discover the strait whicli bears his name? For one thing, the strait is there if not quite where he placed it. Fuca gave the location as between 47° and 48° N.L. The actual location of the mouth of the strait is between 48° 25' and 48° 38'. An error of one degree or 70 miles is not unreasonable in view of the tools he had to work with. His estimation of the width of the channel and his description of its turns and its islands is a very reasonable approximation. There is another reason to accept his discovery. Juan de fuca described, at the entrance to his strait, an "exceedingly high Pinacle, or spired Rocke". In 1788 Capt. Charles Duncan of the PRINCESS ROYAL found such a rock at the entrance to the strait. He drew a map of the area and a sketch of the area - Green Island Pinnacle Rock, Cape Claaset (now Tatoosh Island, Fuca's Pinnacle, Cape Flattery). In 1887 Capt. Barkley, on the IMPERIAL EAGLE, it and named it Juan de Fuca. rediscovered the Strait, identified In 1790, the Spanish commander at Nootka sent Narvaez south to confirm that the strait actually existed and, on learning that it did, he sent Quimper to explore it. The following year Eliza set up a base at Puerto de Quadra (Port Discovery and used it for further exploration. It is significant that both the Spanish and the British knew of Juan de Fuca's strait, and identified it as such. Vie do no less when we accept the name. Duncan's Sketch of Pinnacle Rock at the Entrance to the Strait