Alessandro Malaspina of Mulazzo

Brigadier Alejandro Malaspina was a Spanish Navy officer and explorer. Under a Spanish royal commission, he undertook a voyage around the world from 1786 to 1788, then, from 1789 to 1794, a scientific expedition throughout the Pacific Ocean, exploring and mapping much of the west coast of the Americas from Cape Horn to the Gulf of Alaska, crossing to Guam and the Philippines, and stopping in New Zealand, Australia, and Tonga. Malaspina was christened Alessandro, the Italian form of Alexander. He signed his letters in Spanish Alexandro, which is usually modernized to Alejandro by scholars.