 In 1734 de Lezo was promoted by the king to Lieutenant General of the Navy.He returned to South America with the ships "Fuerte" and "Conquistador" in 1737 as General Commander of the Spanish fleet stationed at Cartagena de Indias, in modern-day Colombia.He took up his new post just prior to the conflict between Great Britain and Spain that would become known as the War of Jenkins' Ear and that would later be subsumed into the War of Austrian Succession.