FINAL LIST AND INDEX 347-444
ADDENDA 445
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
MISSION OF SAN DIEGO DE ALCALÁ, FOUNDED IN 1769 23
MISSION OF SAN ANTONIO DE PALA, FOUNDED IN 1816 31
ARCHWAY AT CAPISTRANO 37
MISSION OF SAN GABRIEL ARCÁNGEL, FOUNDED IN 1771 67
MISSION OF SANTA BÁRBARA 91
MISSION OF SANTA INEZ, FOUNDED IN 1804 111
MISSION OF SAN LUÍS OBISPO, FOUNDED IN 1772 119
MISSION OF SAN MIGUEL, FOUNDED IN 1797 125
MONTEREY IN 1850 135
MISSION OF SAN CARLOS BORROMÉO, FOUNDED IN 1770 139
INTERIOR OF THE QUADRANGLE AT SAN CARLOS MISSION 143
LA PUNTA DE LOS CIPRESES 149
MISSION OF SAN JUAN BAUTISTA, FOUNDED IN 1797 155
MISSION OF SANTA CLARA, FOUNDED IN 1777 169
THE PALO COLORADO (REDWOOD TREE) 175
THE CITY OF YERBA BUENA (SAN FRANCISCO IN 1846-47) 187
MISSION OF SAN FRANCISCO DE ASÍS, COMMONLY CALLED
MISSION DOLORES 195
THE GOLDEN GATE 201
THE FARALLONES 209
TAMALPAIS 215
THE MISSION OF SAN RAFAEL, FOUNDED IN 1817 221
NAPA VALLEY 243
MOUNT SHASTA 253
EL RÍO DE LOS SANTOS REYES (THE RIVER OF THE HOLY KINGS) 279
IN THE SIERRA NEVADAS 284
IN THE HIGH SIERRAS 295
EL RÍO DE LAS PLUMAS (FEATHER RIVER) 301
EL RÍO DE LOS AMERICANOS (AMERICAN RIVER) 307
SHORE OF LAKE TAHOE 313
MARIPOSA SEQUOIAS 319
VERNAL FALLS IN THE YOSEMITE VALLEY 325
MAP OF THE MISSIONS 343
KAWEAH MOUNTAINS 383
THE MISSION OF PURÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN, FOUNDED IN 1880 409
THE TALLAC TRAIL TO TAHOE 437
[Illustration: INTRODUCTION]
I.
INTRODUCTION.
This volume has been prepared in the hope that it may serve, not only
as a source of entertainment to our own people, but also as a useful
handbook for the schools, and as a sort of tourist’s guide for those who
visit the state in such numbers, and who almost invariably exhibit a
lively interest in our Spanish and Indian place names.
We of California are doubly rich in the matter of names, since, in
addition to the Indian nomenclature common to all the states, we possess
the splendid heritage left us by those bold adventurers from Castile
who first set foot upon our shores. In these names the spirit of our
romantic past still lives and breathes, and their sound is like an echo
coming down the years to tell of that other day when the savage built his
bee-hive huts on the river-banks, and the Spanish caballero jingled his
spurs along the Camino Real.
And in what manner, it may well be asked, have we been caring for
this priceless heritage,—to keep it pure, to preserve its inspiring
history, to present it in proper and authentic form for the instruction
and entertainment of “the stranger within our gates,” as well as for
the education of our own youth? As the most convincing answer to this
question, some of the numerous errors in works purporting to deal with
this subject, many of which have even crept into histories and books for
the use of schools, will be corrected in these pages.
In the belief that the Spanish and Indian names possess the greatest
interest for the public, both “tenderfoot” and native, they will be
dealt with here almost exclusively, excepting a very few of American
origin, whose stories are so involved with the others that they can
scarcely be omitted. In addition, there are a number that appear to be of
Anglo-Saxon parentage, but are in reality to be counted among those that
have suffered the regrettable fate of translation into English from the
original Spanish. Of such are Kings County and River, which took their
names from _El Río de los Santos Reyes_ (the River of the Holy Kings),
and the Feather River, originally _El Río de las Plumas_ (the River of
the Feathers).
While searching for the beginnings of these names through the diaries
of the early Spanish explorers and other sources, a number of curious
stories have been encountered, which are shared with the reader in the
belief that he will be glad to know something of the romance lying behind
the nomenclature of our “songful, tuneful” land.
It is a matter of deep regret that the work must of necessity be
incomplete, the sources of information being so scattered, and so often
unreliable, that it has been found impossible to trace all the names to
their origin.
Indian words are especially difficult; in fact, as soon as we enter that
field we step into the misty land of legend, where all becomes doubt
and uncertainty. That such should be the case is inevitable. Scientific
study of the native Californian languages, of which there were so many as
to constitute a veritable Babel of tongues among the multitude of small
tribes inhabiting this region, was begun in such recent times that but
few aborigines were left to tell the story of their names, and those few
retained but a dim memory of the old days. In view of the unsatisfactory
nature of this information, stories of Indian origin will be told here
with the express qualification that their authenticity is not vouched
for, except in cases based upon scientific evidence. Some of the most
romantic among them, when put to the “acid test” of such investigation,
melt into thin air. In a general way, it may be said that Indian names
were usually derived from villages, rather than tribes, and that, in most
cases, their meaning has been lost.
In the case of Spanish names, we have a rich mine in the documents left
behind by the methodical Spaniards, who maintained the praiseworthy
custom of keeping minute accounts of their travels and all circumstances
connected therewith. From these sources the true stories of the origin
of some of our place names have been collected, and are retold in
these pages, as far as possible, in the language of their founders.
Unfortunately, the story can not always be run to earth, and in such
cases, the names, with their translation, and sometimes an explanatory
paragraph, will appear in a supplementary list at the end of the volume.
The stories have been arranged in a series of groups, according to their
geographical location, beginning with San Diego as the most logical
point, since it was there that the first mission was established by the
illustrious Junípero Serra, and there that the history of California
practically began. The arrangement of these groups is not arbitrary, but,
in a general way, follows the course of Spanish Empire, as it took its
way, first up the coast, then branching out into the interior valley, and
climbing the Sierras.
Some of the stories may appear as “twice-told tales” to scholars and
other persons to whom they have long been familiar, but are included here
for the benefit of the stranger and the many “native sons” who have had
no opportunity to become acquainted with them.
A few words in regard to the method of naming places customary among
the Spanish explorers may help the reader to a better understanding of
results. The military and religious members of the parties were naturally
influenced by opposite ideas, and so they went at it in two different
ways. The padres, as a matter of course, almost invariably chose names of
a religious character, very often the name of the saint upon whose “day”
the party happened to arrive at a given spot. This tendency resulted in
the multitude of _Sans_ and _Santas_ with which the map of our state is
so generously sprinkled, and which are the cause of a certain monotony.
Fortunately for variety’s sake, the soldiers possessed more imagination,
if less religion, than the padres, and were generally influenced by
some striking circumstance, perhaps trivial or humorous, but always
characteristic, and often picturesque. In many cases the choice of the
soldiers has out-lived that of the fathers.
Broadly speaking, it may be said that names were first applied to rivers,
creeks or mountains, as being those natural features of the country most
important to the welfare, or even the very existence, of the exploring
parties. For instance, the _Merced_ (Mercy), River was so-called because
it was the first drinking water encountered by the party after having
traversed forty miles of the hot, dry valley. Then, as time passed and
the country developed, towns were built upon the banks of these streams,
frequently receiving the same names, and these were often finally adopted
to designate the counties established later in the regions through which
their waters flow. In this way Plumas County derived its name from the
Feather River, originally _El Río de las Plumas_, and Kings County from
_El Río de los Reyes_ (the River of the Kings). This way of naming was,
however, not invariable.
It sometimes happens that the name has disappeared from the map, while
the story remains, and some such stories will be told, partly for their
own interest, and partly for the light they throw upon a past age.
Among our Spanish names there is a certain class given to places in
modern times by Americans in a praiseworthy attempt to preserve the
romantic flavor of the old days. Unfortunately, an insufficient knowledge
of the syntax and etymology of the Spanish language has resulted in
some improper combinations. Such names, for instance, as _Monte Vista_
(Mountain or Forest View), _Loma Vista_ (Hill View), _Río Vista_ (River
View), etc., grate upon the ears of a Spaniard, who would never combine
two nouns in this way. The correct forms for these names would be _Vista
del Monte_ (View of the Mountain), _Vista de la Loma_ (View of the Hill),
_Vista del Río_ (View of the River), etc. Between this class of modern
Spanish names, more or less faulty in construction, given by “Spaniards
from Kansas,” as has been humorously said, and the real old names of the
Spanish epoch about which a genuine halo of romance still clings, there
is an immense gulf.
In the numerous quotations used in this book, the language of the
original has generally been retained, with no attempt to change the form
of expression. In spite of the most conscientious efforts to avoid them,
unreliability of sources may cause some errors to find their way into
these pages; for these the author hopes not to be held responsible.
[Illustration: CALIFORNIA]
II
CALIFORNIA
First comes the name of _California_ herself, the _sin par_ (peerless
one), as Don Quixote says of his Dulcinea. This name, strange to say,
was a matter of confusion and conjecture for many years, until, in 1862,
Edward Everett Hale accidentally hit upon the explanation since accepted
by historians.
Several theories, all more or less fanciful and far-fetched, were based
upon the supposed construction of the word from the Latin _calida
fornax_ (hot oven), in reference either to the hot, dry climate of Lower
California, or to the “sweathouses” in use among the Indians. Such
theories not only presuppose a knowledge of Latin not likely to exist
among the hardy men who first landed upon our western shores but also
indicate a labored method of naming places quite contrary to their custom
of seizing upon some direct and obvious circumstance upon which to base
their choice. In all the length and breadth of California few, if any,
instances exist where the Spaniards invented a name produced from the
Latin or Greek in this far-fetched way. They saw a big bird, so they
named the river where they saw it _El Río del Pájaro_ (the River of the
Bird), or they suffered from starvation in a certain canyon, so they
called it _La Cañada del Hambre_ (the Canyon of Hunger), or they reached
a place on a certain saint’s day, and so they named it for that saint.
They were practical men and their methods were simple.
In any case, since Mr. Hale has provided us with a more reasonable
explanation, all such theories may be passed over as unworthy of
consideration. While engaged in the study of Spanish literature, he was
fortunate enough to run across a copy of an old novel, published in
Toledo sometime between 1510 and 1521, in which the word _California_
occurred as the name of a fabulous island, rich in minerals and precious
stones, and said to be the home of a tribe of Amazons. This novel,
entitled _Las Sergas de Esplandián_ (The Adventures of Esplandián),
was written by the author, García Ordonez de Montalvo, as a sequel to
the famous novel of chivalry, _Amadís of Gaul_, of which he was the
translator. The two works were printed in the same volume. Montalvo’s
romance, although of small literary value, had a considerable vogue among
Spanish readers of the day, and that its pages were probably familiar to
the early explorers in America is proved by the fact that Bernal Díaz,
one of the companions of Cortés, often mentions the Amadís, to which the
story of Esplandián was attached. The passage containing the name that
has since become famous in all the high-ways and by-ways of the world
runs as follows: “Know that on the right hand of the Indies there is an
island called _California_, very near to the terrestrial paradise, which
was peopled by black women, without any men among them, for they were
accustomed to live after the manner of Amazons. They were of strong and
hardened bodies, of ardent courage and of great force. The island was the
strongest in the world, from its steep rocks and great cliffs. Their arms
were all of gold and so were the caparisons of the wild beasts they rode.”
It was during the period when this novel was at the height of its
popularity that Cortés wrote to the King of Spain concerning information
he had of “an island of Amazons, or women only, abounding in pearls
and gold, lying ten days journey from Colima.” After having sent one
expedition to explore the unknown waters in that direction, in 1535 or
thereabout, an expedition that ended in disaster, he went himself and
planted a colony at a point, probably La Paz, on the coast of Lower
California. In his diary of this expedition, Bernal Díaz speaks of
California as a “bay,” and it is probable that the name was first applied
to some definite point on the coast, afterward becoming the designation
of the whole region. The name also occurs in Preciado’s diary of Ulloa’s
voyage down the coast in 1539, making it reasonable to suppose that it
was adopted in the period between 1535 and 1539, whether by Cortés or
some other person can not be ascertained.
Bancroft expresses the opinion that the followers of Cortés may have
used the name in derision, to express their disappointment in finding a
desert, barren land in lieu of the rich country of their expectations,
but it seems far more in keeping with the sanguine nature of the
Spaniards that their imaginations should lead them to draw a parallel
between the rich island of the novel, with its treasures of gold and
silver, and the new land, of whose wealth in pearls and precious metals
some positive proof, as well as many exaggerated tales, had reached them.
An argument that seems to clinch the matter of the origin of the name is
the extreme improbability that two different persons, on opposite sides
of the world, should have invented exactly the same word, at about the
same period, especially such an unusual one as _California_.
As for the etymology of the word itself, it is as yet an unsolved
problem. The suggestion that it is compounded of the Greek root _kali_
(beautiful), and the Latin _fornix_ (vaulted arch), thus making its
definition “beautiful sky,” may be the true explanation, but even if that
be so, Cortés or his followers took it at second hand from Montalvo and
were not its original inventors.
Professor George Davidson, in a monograph on the _Origin and the Meaning
of the Name California_, states that incidental mention had been made
as early as 1849 of the name as occurring in Montalvo’s novel by George
Ticknor, in his _History of Spanish Literature_, but Mr. Ticknor refers
to it simply as literature, without any thought of connecting it with
the name of the state. This connection was undoubtedly first thought of
by Mr. Hale and was discussed in his paper read before the Historical
Society of Massachusetts in 1862; therefore the honor of the discovery
of the origin of the state’s name must in justice be awarded to him.
Professor Davidson, in an elaborate discussion of the possible etymology
of the word, expresses the opinion that it may be a combination of two
Greek words, _kallos_ (beauty), and _ornis_ (bird), in reference to the
following passage in the book: “In this island are many griffins, which
can be found in no other part of the world.” Its etymology, however, is a
matter for further investigation. The one fact that seems certain is its
origin in the name of the fabulous island of the novel.
It may well suffice for the fortunate heritors of the splendid
principality now known as _California_ that this charming name became
affixed to it permanently, rather than the less “tuneful” one of _New
Albion_, which Sir Francis Drake applied to it, and under which cognomen
it appears on some English maps of the date.
[Illustration: IN AND ABOUT SAN DIEGO]
III
IN AND ABOUT SAN DIEGO
Like many other places in California, _San Diego_ (St. James), has had
more than one christening. The first was at the hands of Juan Rodríguez
Cabrillo, who discovered the harbor in 1542, and named it _San Miguel_
(St. Michael). Cabrillo was a Portuguese in the Spanish service, who was
sent to explore the coast in 1542 by Viceroy Mendoza. “He sailed from
Natividad with two vessels, made a careful survey, applied names that for
the most part have not been retained, and described the coast somewhat
accurately as far as Monterey. He discovered ‘a land-locked and very good
harbor,’ probably San Diego, which he named San Miguel. ‘The next day he
sent a boat farther into the port, which was large. A very great gale
blew from the west-southwest, and south-southwest, but the port being
good, they felt nothing.’ On the return from the north the party stopped
at La Posesión, where Cabrillo died on January third, from the effects
of a fall and exposure. No traces of his last resting-place, almost
certainly on San Miguel near Cuyler’s harbor, have been found; and the
drifting sands have perhaps made such a discovery doubtful. To this bold
mariner, the first to discover her coasts, if to any one, California may
with propriety erect a monument.”—(Bancroft’s _History of California_.)
[Illustration: MISSION OF SAN DIEGO DE ALCALÁ, FOUNDED IN 1769.
“The first one of the chain of missions founded by the illustrious
Junípero Serra.”]
Then, in 1602, came Sebastián Vizcaíno, who changed the name from San
Miguel to San Diego. He was “sent to make the discovery and demarcation
of the ports and bays of the Southern Sea (Pacific Ocean),” and to occupy
for Spain the California isles, as they were then thought to be. From the
diary of Vizcaíno’s voyage we get the following account of his arrival at
San Diego: “The next day, Sunday, the tenth of the said month (November),
we arrived at a port, the best that there can be in all the Southern Sea,
for, besides being guarded from all winds, and having a good bottom, it
is in latitude 33½. It has very good water and wood, many fish of all
sorts, of which we caught a great many with the net and hooks. There is
good hunting of rabbits, hares, deer, and many large quail, ducks and
other birds. On the twelfth of the said month, which was the day of the
glorious San Diego, the admiral, the priests, the officers, and almost
all the people, went on shore. A hut was built, thus enabling the feast
of the Señor San Diego to be celebrated.”
A party sent out to get wood “saw upon a hill a band of 100 Indians, with
bows and arrows, and many feathers upon their heads, and with a great
shouting they called out to us.” By a bestowal of presents, friendly
relations were established. The account continues: “They had pots in
which they cooked their food, and the Indian women were dressed in the
skins of animals. The name of _San Diego_ was given to this port.” Thus,
it was the bay that first received the name, years afterwards given to
the mission, then to the town. During the stay of Vizcaíno’s party the
Indians came often to their camp with marten skins and other articles.
On November 20, having taken on food and water, the party set sail, the
Indians shouting a vociferous farewell from the beach (_quedaban en la
playa, dando boces_.)
A long period of neglect of more than 160 years then ensued. The Indians
continued to carry on their wretched hand-to-mouth existence, trapping
wild beasts for their food and scanty clothing, fishing in the teeming
streams, and keeping up their constant inter-tribal quarrels unmolested
by the white man. Several generations grew up and passed away without a
reminder of the strange people who had once been seen upon their shores,
except perhaps an occasional white sail of some Philippine galleon seen
flitting like a ghost on its southward trip along the coast.
Then the Spaniards, alarmed by reports of the encroachments of the
Russians on the north, waked up from their long sleep, and determined
to establish a chain of missions along the California coast. Father
Junípero Serra was appointed president of these missions, and the first
one of the chain was founded by him at San Diego in 1769. The name was
originally applied to the “Old Town,” some distance from the present
city. The founding party encountered great difficulties, partly through
their fearful sufferings from scurvy, and partly from the turbulent and
thievish nature of the Indians in that vicinity, with whom they had
several lively fights, and who stole everything they could lay their
hands on, even to the sheets from the beds of the sick. During one of
these attacks, the mission buildings were burned and one of the padres,
Fray Luís Jaime, suffered a cruel death, but all difficulties were
finally overcome by the strong hand of Father Serra, and the mission was
placed on a firm basis. Its partially ruined buildings still remain at a
place about six miles from the present city.
To return to the matter of the name, San Diego is doubly rich in
possessing two titular saints, the bay having been undoubtedly named by
Vizcaíno in honor of St. James, the patron saint of Spain, whereas the
town takes its name from the mission, which perpetuates the memory of
a canonized Spanish monk, San Diego de Alcalá. The story of St. James,
the patron of Spain, runs as follows: “As one of Christ’s disciples, a
nobleman’s son who chose to abandon his wealth and follow Jesus, he was
persecuted by the Jews, and finally beheaded. When dragged before Herod
Agrippa, his gentleness touched the soul of one of his tormentors, who
begged to die with him. James gave him a kiss, saying ‘_Pax Vobiscum_’
(peace be with you), and from this arose the kiss of peace which has been
used in the church since that time. The legend has it that his body was
conducted by angels to Spain, where a magnificent church was built for
its reception, and that his spirit returned to earth and took an active
part in the military affairs of the country. He was said to have appeared
at the head of the Spanish armies on thirty-eight different occasions,
most notably in 939, when King Ramírez determined not to submit longer
to the tribute of one hundred virgins annually paid to the Moors, and
defied them to a battle. After the Spaniards had suffered one repulse,
the spirit of St. James appeared at their head on a milk-white charger,
and led them to a victory in which sixty thousand Moors were left dead on
the field. From that day ‘Santiago!’ has been the Spanish war-cry.”—(From
Clara Erskine Clement’s _Stories of the Saints_.)
It happens, rather curiously, that in the Spanish language St. James
appears under several different forms, _Santiago_, _San Diego_ and _San
Tiago_. The immediate patron of our southernmost city, _San Diego de
Alcalá_, was a humble Capuchin brother in a monastery of Alcalá. It is
said that the _infante_ Don Carlos was healed of a severe wound through
the intercession of this saint, and that on this account Philip II
promoted his canonization.
May the spirit of the “glorious San Diego” shed some of his tender
humanity upon the city of which he is the protector!
CORONADO BEACH
_Coronado Beach_, the long spit of land forming the outer shore of the
harbor of San Diego, “derived its name from the Coronado Islands near
it. These islands were originally named by the Spaniards in honor of
Coronado. When the improvement of the sand spit opposite San Diego City
and facing the Coronado Islands was made in 1885, the name of Coronado
Beach was bestowed upon it.”—(Charles B. Turrill, San Francisco.)
In all the history of Spain in western America there is nothing more
romantic than the story of the famous explorer, Francisco Vásquez
de Coronado, who, with the delightful childlike faith of his race,
marched through Texas and Kansas in search of the fabulous city of _Gran
Quivira_, “where every one had his dishes made of wrought plate, and the
jugs and bowls were of gold,” and then marched back again! Imagine our
hard-headed Puritan ancestors setting forth on such a quest!
[Illustration: MISSION OF SAN ANTONIO DE PALA, FOUNDED IN 1816.
“Many a romantic tale has been told about the ‘bells of Pala’!”]
SAN LUÍS REY
_San Luís Rey de Francia_ (St. Louis King of France), is the name of the
mission situated in a charming little valley about forty miles north of
San Diego and three miles from the sea. It was founded June 13, 1798, by
Padres Lasuén, Santiago and Peyri, and its ruins may still be seen upon
the spot. A partial restoration has been made of these buildings and they
are now used by the Franciscans. The exact circumstances of its naming
have not come to light, but we know of its patron saint that his holiness
was such that even Voltaire said of him: “It is scarcely given to man to
push virtue further.” Born at Poissy in 1215, the son of Louis VIII and
Blanche of Castile, he became noted for his saintliness, and twice led
an army of Crusaders in the “holy war.”
PALA
_Pala_, often misspelled _palo_, through an accidental resemblance to the
Spanish word _palo_ (stick or tree), is situated some fifteen miles or
more to the northeast of San Luís Rey, and is the site of the sub-mission
of San Antonio de Pala, founded in 1816 by Padre Peyri as a branch of San
Luís Rey. This mission was unique in having a bell-tower built apart from
the church, and many romantic stories have been told about the “bells of
Pala.” It was located in the center of a populous Indian community, and
it happens, rather curiously, that the word itself has a significance
both in Spanish and Indian, meaning in Spanish “spade” and in Indian
“water.” The Reverend George Doyle, pastor at the mission of San Antonio
de Pala, writes the following in regard to this name: “The word ‘Pala’
is an Indian word, meaning, in the Cupanian Mission Indian language,
‘water,’ probably due to the fact that the San Luís Rey River passes
through it. The proper title of the mission chapel here is San Antonio de
Padua, but as there is another San Antonio de Padua mission chapel in the
north, to distinguish between the two some one in the misty past changed
the proper title of the Saint, and so we have ‘de Pala’ instead of ‘de
Padua.’ Some writers say Pala is Spanish, but this is not true, for the
little valley in no way resembles a spade, and the Palanian Indians were
here long before the Franciscan padres brought civilization, Christianity
and the Spanish language.”
_Pala_, in this case, is almost certainly Indian, and originates in a
legend of the Luiseños. According to this legend, one of the natives of
the Temécula tribe went forth on his travels, stopping at many places
and giving names to them. One of these places was a canyon, “where he
drank water and called it _pala_, water.”—(_The Religion of the Luiseño
Indians_, by Constance Goddard Dubois, in the Univ. of Cal. Publ. of
Arch. and Tech.)
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO
_San Juan Capistrano_ (St. John Capistrano), was at one time sadly
mutilated by having its first part clipped off, appearing on the map as
_Capistrano_, but upon representations made by Zoeth S. Eldredge it was
restored to its full form by the Post Office Department. A mission was
founded at this place, which is near the coast about half-way between San
Diego and Los Ángeles, by Padres Serra and Amurrio, November 1, 1776, the
year of our own glorious memory. While on the other side of the continent
bloody war raged, under the sunny skies of California the gentle padres
were raising altars to the “Man of Peace.”
The buildings at this place were badly wrecked by an earthquake on
December 8, 1812, yet the ruins still remain to attest to the fact that
this was at one time regarded as the finest of all the mission structures.
Its patron saint, St. John Capistrano, was a Franciscan friar who lived
at the time of the crusades, and took part in them. A colossal statue of
him adorns the exterior of the Cathedral at Vienna. It represents him as
having a Turk under his feet, a standard in one hand, and a cross in the
other.
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST
There remain some names in the San Diego group of less importance,
yet possessing many points of interest, which will be included in the
following list, with an explanation of their meanings, and their history
wherever it has been possible to ascertain it.
[Illustration: ARCHWAY AT CAPISTRANO.
“At one time regarded as the finest of all the mission structures.”]
_Agua Tibia_ (warm water, warm springs), is in San Diego County. For
some reason difficult to divine, this perfectly simple name has been the
cause of great confusion in the minds of a number of writers. In one
case the almost incredibly absurd translation “shinbone water” has been
given. It may be thought that this was intended as a bit of humor, but
it is greatly to be feared that the writer mixed up the Spanish word
_tibia_, which simply means “tepid, warm,” with the Latin name of one
of the bones of the lower leg, the _tibia_. In another case the equally
absurd translation “flute water” has been given. Where such a meaning
could have been obtained is beyond comprehension to any person possessing
even a slight knowledge of the Spanish language. _Agua Tibia_ is no more
nor less than “warm water,” applied in this case to warm springs existing
at that place. This extreme case is enlarged upon here as an example of
the gross errors that have been freely handed out to an unsuspecting
public in the matter of our place names. There are many more of the
same sort, and the authors of this inexcusable stuff have been accepted
and even quoted as authorities on the subject. Those of us who love our
California, in other words all of us, can not fail to be pained by such a
degradation of her romantic history.
_Ballena_ (whale), is in San Diego County at the west end of Ballena
Valley, and as it is a good many miles inland its name seems incongruous,
until we learn from one of its residents that it was so-called in
reference to a mountain in the valley whose outline along the top is
exactly the shape of a humpbacked whale.
“This place has probably no connection with Ballenas, a name applied to
a bay in Lower California on account of its being a favorite resort of
the Humpback whale.”—(Mr. Charles B. Turrill.)
_Berenda_, in Merced County, is a misspelling of Berrendo or Berrenda.
_Berrendo_ (antelope). A writer whose knowledge of Spanish seems to
be wholly a matter of the dictionary, confused by the fact that the
definition given for _berrendo_ is “having two colors,” has offered the
fantastic translation of _El Río de los Berrendos_ as “The River of two
Colors.” Although the idea of such a river, like a piece of changeable
silk, may be picturesque, the simple truth is that the word _berrendo_,
although not so-defined in the dictionaries, is used in Spanish America
to signify a deer of the antelope variety and frequently occurs in that
sense in the diaries. Miguel Costansó, an engineer accompanying the
Portolá expedition of 1769, says: “_Hay en la tierra venados, verrendos_
(also spelled _berrendos_), _muchos liebres, conejos, gatos monteses
y ratas_ (there are in the land deer, antelope, many hares, rabbits,
wild-cats and rats).” On August 4 this party reached a place forty
leagues from San Diego which they called _Berrendo_ because they caught
alive a deer which had been shot the day before by the soldiers and had
a broken leg. Antelope Creek, in Tehama County, was originally named _El
Río de los Berrendos_ (The River of the Antelopes), undoubtedly because
it was a drinking place frequented by those graceful creatures, and
Antelope Valley, in the central part of the state, must have received its
name in the same way.
_El Cajón_ (the box), about twelve miles northeast of San Diego, perhaps
received its name from a custom the Spaniards had of calling a deep
canyon with high, box-like walls, _un cajón_ (a box).
_Caliente Creek_ (hot creek), is in the northern part of San Diego County.
_Campo_ (a level field), also sometimes used in the sense of a camp,
is the name of a place about forty miles east-southeast of San Diego,
just above the Mexican border. _Campo_ was an Indian settlement, and may
have been so-called by the Spaniards simply in reference to the camp of
Indians.
_Cañada del Bautismo_ (glen of the baptism), so-called from the
circumstance that two dying native children were there baptized by
the padres, as told in the diary of Miguel Costansó, of the Portolá
expedition of 1769. Death, when it came to the children of the natives,
was often regarded as cause for rejoicing by the missionaries, not, of
course, through any lack of humanity on their part, but because the
Indian parents more readily consented to baptism at such a time, and the
padres regarded these as so many souls “snatched from the burning.”
_Carriso_ (reed grass), is the name of a village and creek in San Diego
County.
_Chula Vista_ (pretty view), is the name of a town near the coast, a
few miles southeast of San Diego. _Chula_ is a word of Mexican origin,
meaning pretty, graceful, attractive. “This name was probably first used
by the promoters during the boom of 1887.”—(Mr. Charles B. Turrill.)
_La Costa_ (the coast), a place on the shore north of San Diego.
_Coyote Valley_, situated just below the southern border of the San
Jacinto Forest Reservation. _Coyote_, the name of the wolf of Western
America, is an Aztec word, originally _coyotl_.
_Cuyamaca_ is probably derived from the land grant of that name, which in
turn took its name from the Cuyamaca Mountain, which, according to the
scientists, was so-called in reference to the clouds and rain gathering
around its summit. Mr. T. T. Waterman, instructor in Anthropology at the
University of California, says the word is derived from two Indian words,
_kwe_ (rain), and _amak_ (yonder), and consequently means “rain yonder.”
The popular translation of it as “woman’s breast” is probably not based
on fact. There was an Indian village of that name some miles northwest of
San Diego.
_Descanso_ (rest), is the name of a place northeast of San Diego,
so-called by a government surveying party for the reason that they
stopped here each day for rest.
_Dulzura_ (sweetness), is the name of a place but a few miles north of
the Mexican border line. What there was of “sweetness” in the history of
this desolate mining camp can not be discovered.
_Encinitas_ (little oaks), is a place on the coast about twenty miles
northwest of San Diego.
_Escondido_ (hidden), a place lying about fifteen miles from the coast,
to the northeast of San Diego. It is said to have been so-named on
account of its location in the valley. A place at another point was
called _Escondido_ by the Spaniards because of the difficulty they
experienced in finding the water for which they were anxiously searching,
and it may be that in this case the origin of the name was the same.
_La Jolla_, a word of doubtful origin, said by some persons to mean a
“pool,” by others to be from _hoya_, a hollow surrounded by hills, and
by still others to be a possible corruption of _joya_, a “jewel.” The
suggestion has been made that La Jolla was named from caves situated
there which contain pools, but until some further information turns up
this name must remain among the unsolved problems. There is always the
possibility also that _La Jolla_ means none of these things but is a
corruption of some Indian word with a totally different meaning. More
than one place in the state masquerades under an apparently Spanish name
which is in reality an Indian word corrupted into some Spanish word to
which it bore an accidental resemblance in sound. _Cortina_ (curtain) is
an example of this sort of corruption, it being derived from the Indian
_Ko-tina_.
_Laguna del Corral_ (lagoon of the yard). _Corral_ is a word much in
use to signify a space of ground enclosed by a fence, often for the
detention of animals. In one of the diaries an Indian corral is thus
spoken of: “Near the place in which we camped there was a populous Indian
village; the inhabitants lived without other protection than a light
shelter of branches in the form of an enclosure; for this reason the
soldiers gave to the whole place the name of the _Ranchería del Corral_
(the village of the yard).” There are other _corrals_ and _corralitos_
(little yards) in the state.
_Linda Vista_ (charming or pretty view), is the name of a place ten or
twelve miles due north of San Diego.
_Point Loma_ (hill point). _Loma_ means “hill,” hence Point Loma, the
very end of the little peninsula enclosing San Diego bay, is a high
promontory.
_De Luz_ (a surname), that of a pioneer family. The literal meaning of
the word _luz_ is “light.”
_Del Mar_ (of or on the sea), the name of a place on the shore about
eighteen miles north of San Diego.
_La Mesa_ (literally “the table”), used very commonly to mean “a high,
flat table-land.” _La Mesa_, incorrectly printed on some of the maps as
one word, _Lamesa_, lies a few miles to the northeast of San Diego.
_Mesa Grande_ (literally “big table”), big table-land, is some distance
to the northeast of San Diego.
_El Nido_ (the nest), is southeast of San Diego, near the border.
_Potrero_ (pasture ground), is just above the border line. There are many
_Potreros_ scattered over the state.
_La Presa_ (the dam or dike). _La Presa_ is a few miles east of San
Diego, on the Sweetwater River, no doubt called _Agua Dulce_ by the
Spaniards.
_Los Rosales_ (the rose-bushes), a spot located in the narratives of the
Spaniards at about seventeen leagues from San Diego, and two leagues from
Santa Margarita. Nothing in the new land brought to the explorers sweeter
memories of their distant home than “the roses of Castile” which grew so
luxuriantly along their pathway as to bring forth frequent expressions of
delight from the padres. This particular place we find mentioned in the
diary of Miguel Costansó, as follows: “We gave it the name of _Cañada de
los Rosales_ (glen of the rose-bushes), on account of the great number
of rose-bushes we saw.”—(Translation edited by Frederick J. Teggart,
Curator of the Academy of Pacific Coast History.)
_Temécula_, the name of a once important Indian village in the Temécula
Valley, about thirty-five miles south of Riverside. Its inhabitants
suffered the usual fate of the native when the white man discovers the
value of the land, and were compelled to leave their valley in 1875, and
remove to Pichanga Canyon, in a desert region.
_Tía Juana_ (literally Aunt Jane). Travelers on the way to Mexico who
stop for customs examination at this border town are no doubt surprised
by its peculiar name. This is an example of the corruption, through its
resemblance in sound, of an Indian word, _Tiwana_, into _Tía Juana_,
Spanish for “Aunt Jane.” _Tiwana_ is said to mean “by the sea,” which may
or may not be the correct translation.
[Illustration: LOS ÁNGELES AND HER NEIGHBORS]
IV
LOS ÁNGELES AND HER NEIGHBORS
_Los Ángeles_ (the angels). In the diary of Miguel Costansó, date of
August 2, 1769, we read: “To the north-northeast one could see another
water-course or river bed, which formed a wide ravine, but it was dry.
This water-course joined that of the river, and gave clear indications
of heavy floods during the rainy season, as it had many branches of
trees and debris on its sides. We halted at this place, which was named
_La Porciúncula_. Here we felt three successive earthquakes during the
afternoon and night.”—(Translation edited by Frederick J. Teggart.)
This was the stream upon which the city of Los Ángeles was subsequently
built and whose name became a part of her title. Porciúncula was the name
of a town and parish near Assisi which became the abode of St. Francis de
Assisi after the Benedictine monks had presented him, about 1211, with
the little chapel which he called, in a jocular way, _La Porciúncula_
(the small portion). By order of Pius V, in 1556 the erection of a new
edifice over the Porciúncula chapel was begun. Under the bay of the choir
is still preserved the cell in which St. Francis died, while a little
behind the sacristy is the spot where the saint, during a temptation,
is said to have rolled in a brier-bush, which was then changed into
thornless roses.—(Catholic Encyclopedia.) In this story there is a
curious interweaving of the history of the names of our two rival cities,
St. Francis in the north and Los Ángeles de Porciúncula in the south.
Continuing their journey on the following day, the Portolá party reached
the Indian ranchería (village) of _Yangna_, the site chosen for the
pueblo established at a later date. Father Crespi writes of it thus: “We
followed the road to the west, and the good pasture land followed us; at
about half a league of travel we encountered the village of this part; on
seeing us they came out on the road, and when we drew near they began to
howl, as though they were wolves; we saluted them, they wished to give us
some seeds, and as we had nothing at hand in which to carry them, we did
not accept them; seeing this, they threw some handfuls on the ground and
the rest in the air.”
August 2 being the feast day of _Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles_, as the
Virgin Mary is often called by the Spaniards, this name was given to the
place.
The actual founding of the pueblo did not occur until September 4, 1781,
when Governor Neve issued the order for its establishment upon the site
of the Indian village Yangna. It is said that the Porciúncula River,
henceforth to be known as the Los Ángeles, at that time ran to the east
of its present course. The name of the little stream was added to that of
the pueblo, so that the true, complete title of the splendid city which
has grown up on the spot where the Indian once raised his wolf-like howl
is _Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula_ (Our Lady the
Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula).
The social beginnings of Los Ángeles were humble indeed, the first
settlers being persons of mixed race, and the first houses mere hovels,
made of adobe, with flat roofs covered with asphalt from the springs west
of the town.
EL RANCHO LA BREA
_La Brea_ (the asphalt), has been retained as the appropriate designation
of the ranch containing the famous asphaltum beds near Los Ángeles. Ever
since the days of the Tertiary Age, the quaking, sticky surface of these
beds has acted as a “death trap” for unwary animals, and the remains of
the unfortunate creatures have been securely preserved down to our times,
furnishing indisputable evidence of the strange life that once existed on
our shores. Fossils of a large number of pre-historic and later animals
have been taken out, aggregating nearly a million specimens of bird and
animal life, many of them hitherto unknown to science. Among them are
the saber-tooth tiger, gigantic wolves, bears, horses, bison, deer, an
extinct species of coyote, camels, elephants, and giant sloths. Remains
are also found of mice, rabbits, squirrels, several species of insects,
and a large number of birds, such as ducks, geese, pelicans, eagles and
condors.
Among the most remarkable of these fossils are the saber-tooth tiger
and the great wolf. Specimens of the wolf have been found which are
among the largest known in either living or extinct species. This wolf
differs from existing species in having a larger and heavier skull and
jaws, and in its massive teeth, a conformation that must have given it
great crushing power. The structure of the skeleton shows it to have
been probably less swift, but more powerful than the modern wolf, and
the great number of bones found indicate that it was exceedingly common
in that age. One bed of bones was uncovered in which the number of
saber-tooth and wolf skulls together averaged twenty per cubic yard.
Altogether, the disappearance of these great, ferocious beasts from the
California forests need cause no keen regret.
Next to the large wolf the most common is the saber-tooth tiger, of
which one complete skeleton and a large number of bones have been
found. The skeleton shows the animal to have been of about the size of
a large African lion, and its most remarkable characteristic was the
extraordinary length of the upper canine teeth, which were like long,
thin sabers, with finely serrated edges. These teeth were awkwardly
placed for ordinary use, and it is thought by scientists that they were
used for a downward stab through the thick necks of bulky creatures,
such as the giant sloth. There is also an unusual development of the
claws, possibly to make up for the loss of grasping power in the jaws,
resulting from the interference of the long saber teeth. It appears from
the state of many of the fossils that these teeth were peculiarly liable
to fracture, and accidents of this sort may have led to the extinction of
the species, the animal thus perishing through the over-development of
one of its characteristics.
Fossils of the extinct horse and bison are common, and a smaller number
are found of camels, deer, goats, and the mammoth. The bison were
heavy-horned and somewhat larger than the existing species of buffalo.
The camel, of which an almost complete specimen has very recently been
taken out by Professor R. C. Stoner, of the University of California,
was much larger than the present day species. Since the above was put
in type, a human skeleton has been taken from the vicinity of the La
Brea bed. Whether this skeleton belongs with the La Brea deposits, and
what its comparative age in relation to other human remains may be, are
matters now being investigated by scientists.
The preponderance of meat-eating animals in the La Brea beds has
attracted the attention of scientists, who believe that these creatures
were lured to the spot in large numbers by the struggles and cries of
their unfortunate prey caught in the sticky mass of the tar. In this way,
a single sloth, or other creature, may have been the means of bringing
retribution upon a whole pack of wolves.—(Notes taken from an article in
the Sunset Magazine of October, 1908, entitled _The Death Trap of the
Ages_, by John C. Merriam, Professor of Paleontology in the University of
California.)
The manner in which this great aggregation of animals came to a tragic
end in that long-past age is exemplified in the way that birds and other
small animals are still occasionally caught in the treacherous asphalt
and there perish miserably, adding their bones to those of their unhappy
predecessors.
The La Brea beds furnish one of the richest fields for paleontological
research to be found anywhere in the world; and it may be said, that
with her great Sequoias in the north, and her reservoir of pre-historic
remains in the south, California stands as a link between a past age and
the present.
The tarry deposit itself has its own place in history, for it appears
that the first settlers of Los Ángeles were alive to the practical value
of this supply of asphaltum lying ready to their hands, and used it in
roofing their houses. Even the Indians, little as is the credit usually
given them for skill in the arts and crafts, recognized the possibilities
of this peculiar substance, and used it in calking their canoes.
LOS OJITOS
The story of _Los Ojitos_ (literally “little eyes”), but here used in the
sense of “little springs,” situated about two leagues from Santa Ana,
indicates that the pleasures of social intercourse were not altogether
lacking among the California Indians. In the diary of Miguel Costansó, of
the date of their arrival at this place, he writes: “We found no water
for the animals, but there was sufficient for the people in some little
springs or small pools, in a narrow canyon close to a native village.
The Indians of this village were holding a feast and dance, to which
they had invited their relatives of the _Río de los Temblores_ (River
of the Earthquakes, or Santa Ana).”—(Translation edited by Frederick
J. Teggart.) During this time the travelers experienced a series of
earthquakes lasting several days.
_Ojo de agua_ was commonly used by the Spaniards to mean a spring, but
during the eighteenth century it was frequently used in America in the
sense of a small stream of water rather than a spring.
SANTA ANA
On the day, Friday, July 28, 1769, of the arrival of the Portolá
expedition at the stream now called the _Santa Ana_, which takes its
rise in the San Bernardino Mountains, and empties into the ocean at
a point southeast of Los Ángeles, four severe earthquakes occurred.
Speaking of this circumstance in his diary, Father Crespi says: “To
this spot was given _El Dulce Nombre de Jesús de los Temblores_ (The
Sweet Name of Jesus of the Earthquakes), because of having experienced
here a frightful earthquake, which was repeated four times during the
day. The first, which was the most violent, happened at one o’clock of
the afternoon, and the last about four o’clock. One of the _gentiles_
(unbaptized Indians), who happened to be in the camp, and who, without
doubt, exercised among them the office of priest, no less terrified at
the event than we, began, with horrible cries and great demonstrations,
to entreat Heaven, turning to all points of the compass. This river is
known to the soldiers as the _Santa Ana_.” This was one of the rare cases
where the usual method of naming was reversed, and the soldiers chose the
name of the saint. St. Anna was the mother of the Virgin and her name
signifies “gracious.”
In the account of Captain Pedro Fages, of the same expedition, the
natives on this stream are described as having light complexions and
hair, and a good appearance, differing in these particulars from the
other inhabitants of that region, who were said to be dark, dirty,
under-sized and slovenly. This is not the only occasion when the
Spaniards reported finding Indians of light complexions and hair in
California. One account speaks of a red-haired tribe not far north of
San Francisco, and still another of “white Indians” at Monterey, but,
judging by the light of our subsequent knowledge of these aborigines, the
writers of these reports must have indulged in exaggeration.
On the southern bank of the Santa Ana, not far from the coast, is the
town of the same name, and further inland its waters have made to bloom
in the desert the famous orange orchards of Riverside.
SANTA MÓNICA
_Santa Mónica_, situated at the innermost point of the great curve in the
coast line just west of Los Ángeles, was named in honor of a saintly lady
whose story is here quoted from Clara Erskine Clement’s _Stories of the
Saints_: “She was the mother of St. Augustine, and was a Christian, while
his father was a heathen. Mónica was sorely troubled at the dissipated
life of her young son; she wept and prayed for him, and at last sought
the advice and aid of the Bishop of Carthage, who dismissed her with
these words. ‘Go in peace; the son of so many tears will not perish.’ At
length she had the joy of beholding the baptism of St. Augustine by the
Bishop of Milan.”
Santa Mónica is venerated as the great patroness of the Augustinian nuns,
and might well be placed at the head of the world-wide order of “Anxious
Mothers.”
SANTA CATALINA
_Santa Catalina_, the beautiful island off the coast of Southern
California, was named by Vizcaíno in honor of St. Catherine, because its
discovery occurred on the eve of her feast day, November 24, 1602. In the
diary of the voyage we get an interesting description of the island and
its aboriginal inhabitants: “We continued our journey along the coast
until November 24, when, on the eve of the glorious Santa Catalina, we
discovered three large islands; we took the one in the middle, which
is more than twenty-five leagues in circumference, on November 27, and
before dropping anchor in a good cove which was found, a great number
of Indians came out in canoes of cedar-wood and pine, made of planking
well-joined and calked, and with eight oars each, and fourteen or fifteen
Indians, who looked like galley-slaves. They drew near and came on board
our vessels without any fear whatever. We dropped anchor and went on
shore. There were on the beach a great number of Indians, and the women
received us with roasted sardines and a fruit cooked in the manner of
sweet potatoes.”
Mass was celebrated there in the presence of 150 Indians. The people were
very friendly and the women led the white men by the hand into their
houses. The diary continues: “These people go dressed in the skins of
seals; the women are modest but thievish. The Indians received us with
embraces and brought water in some very well-made jars, and in others
like flasks, that were highly varnished on the outside. They have acorns
and some very large skins, with long wool, apparently of bears, which
serve them for blankets.”
The travelers found here an idol, “in the manner of the devil, without a
head, but with two horns, a dog at the feet, and many children painted
around it.” The Indians readily gave up this idol and accepted the cross
in its stead.
St. Catherine, patroness of this island, was one of the most notable
female martyrs of the Roman Catholic church. We are told that she was
of royal blood, being the daughter of a half-brother of Constantine
the Great. She was converted to Christianity, and became noted for her
unusual sanctity. She was both beautiful and intellectual, and possessed
the gift of eloquence in such a high degree that she was able to confound
fifty of the most learned men appointed by Maximin to dispute matters of
religion with her. The same Maximin, enraged by her refusal of his offers
of love, ordered that she be tortured “by wheels flying in different
directions, to tear her to pieces. When they had bound her to these, an
angel came and consumed the wheels in fire, and the fragments flew around
and killed the executioners and 3000 people. Maximin finally caused
her to be beheaded, when angels came and bore her body to the top of
Mt. Sinai. In the eighth century a monastery was built over her burial
place.”—(_Stories of the Saints._) Santa Catalina is the patroness of
education, science, philosophy, eloquence, and of all colleges, and her
island has good reason to be satisfied with the name chosen by Vizcaíno.
LAS ÁNIMAS BENDITAS
Of _Las Ánimas_ (the souls), which lay between San Gabriel and the
country of the Amajaba (Mojave) Indians, we find the story in Fray
Joaquín Pasqual Nuez’s diary of the expedition made in 1819 by Lieutenant
Gabriel Moraga, to punish the marauding Amajabas, who had murdered a
number of Christian natives. This name was also used as the title of a
land grant just south of Gilroy.
The Moraga party arrived at a point “about a league and a half from Our
Lady of Guadalupe of Guapiabit. We found the place where the Amajabas
killed four Christians of this mission (San Gabriel), three from San
Fernando, and some _gentiles_ (unbaptized Indians). We found the
skeletons and skulls roasted, and, at about a gun-shot from there we
pitched camp. The next day, after mass, we caused the bones to be carried
in procession, the cross in front, Padre Nuez chanting funeral services,
to the spot where they had been burned. There we erected a cross, at the
foot of which we caused the bones to be buried in a deep hole, and then
we blessed the sepulchre. We named the spot _Las Ánimas Benditas_ (The
Blessed Souls).” May they rest in peace!
SAN GABRIEL
_San Gabriel_, the quaint little town lying nine miles east of Los
Ángeles, is the site of the Mission _San Gabriel Arcángel_ (St. Gabriel
Archangel), founded September 8, 1771, by Padres Cambón and Somera. This
mission was placed in a fertile, well-wooded spot, in the midst of a
large Indian population, who, under the instruction of the padres, became
experts in many arts, such as sewing, weaving, soap-making, cobbling,
etc. Their flocks and herds increased to such an extent that they covered
the country for many miles around.
The patron saint, San Gabriel, was the second in rank of the archangels
who stand before the Lord. Whenever he is mentioned in the Bible, it is
as a messenger bearing important tidings, and he is especially venerated
as having carried to the Virgin the message that she was to become the
mother of Christ.
[Illustration: MISSION OF SAN GABRIEL ARCÁNGEL, FOUNDED IN 1771, SHOWING
INDIAN HUTS IN THE FOREGROUND.
“Its flocks and herds once covered the country for many miles around.”]
SAN FERNANDO
It was in the valley of _San Fernando_ (St. Ferdinand), a short distance
northwest of Los Ángeles, that the mission pertaining to the latter
place was established, September 8, 1797, by Padres Lasuén and Dumetz.
The Camulos Rancho, the home of Ramona, the heroine of Mrs. Helen Hunt
Jackson’s romance, was once included in the lands of this mission.
St. Ferdinand, King of Spain, in whose honor this place was named, was a
notable warrior, as well as a saint, and he succeeded in expelling the
Moors from Toledo, Córdova and Seville. He is said also to have been a
patron of the arts, and to have been the founder of the cathedral at
Burgos, celebrated for the beauty of its architecture. But more than for
such attainments, he is remembered for his tenderness toward the poor
and lowly of his people. When urged to put a tax upon them in order to
recruit his army, he replied: “God, in whose cause I fight, will supply
my need. I fear more the curse of one poor old woman than a whole army of
Moors.”—(_Stories of the Saints._)
TEMESCAL
_Temescal_ (sweathouse), in Riverside County, although a place of no
great importance in itself, is interesting in that its name recalls
one of the curious customs widely prevalent among the natives of the
Southwest. The word itself is of Aztec origin, and was brought to
California by the Franciscans.
The _temescal_ is thus described by Dr. A. L. Kroeber, in the University
of California Publications in Archaeology and Ethnology: “At the Banning
Reservation a sweathouse is still in use. From the outside its appearance
is that of a small mound. The ground has been excavated to the depth of a
foot or a foot and a half, over a space of about twelve by seven or eight
feet. In the center of this area two heavy posts are set up three or four
feet apart. These are connected at the top by a log laid in their forks.
Upon this log, and in the two forks, are laid some fifty or more logs and
sticks of various dimensions, their ends sloping down to the edge of the
excavation. It is probable that brush covers these timbers. The whole
is thoroughly covered with earth. There is no smoke hole. The entrance
is on one of the long sides, directly facing the space between the two
center posts, and only a few feet from them. The fireplace is between
the entrance and the posts. It is just possible to stand upright in the
center of the house. In Northern California, the so-called sweathouse
is of larger dimensions, and was preëminently a ceremonial or assembly
chamber.”
Dr. L. H. Bunnell, in his history of the discovery of the Yosemite
valley, gives us some interesting details of the use of the sweathouse
among the Indians of that region: “The remains of these structures were
sometimes mistaken for _tumuli_, being constructed of bark, reeds or
grass, covered with mud. It (the sweathouse), was used as a curative for
disease, and as a convenience for cleansing the skin, when necessity
demands it, although the Indian race is not noted for cleanliness. I
have seen a half-dozen or more enter one of these rudely constructed
sweathouses through the small aperture left for the purpose. Hot stones
are taken in, the aperture is closed until suffocation would seem
impending, when they would crawl out, reeking with perspiration, and
with a shout, spring like acrobats into the cold waters of the stream. As
a remedial agent for disease, the same course is pursued, though varied
at times by the burning and inhalation of resinous boughs and herbs.
In the process of cleansing the skin from impurities, hot air alone is
generally used. If an Indian had passed the usual period of mourning for
a relative, and the adhesive pitch too tenaciously clung to his no longer
sorrowful countenance, he would enter and re-enter the heated house until
the cleansing had become complete. The mourning pitch is composed of the
charred bones and ashes of the dead relative or friend. These remains of
the funeral pyre, with the charcoal, are pulverized and mixed with the
resin of the pine; this hideous mixture is usually retained upon the face
of the mourner until it wears off. If it has been well-compounded, it may
last nearly a year; although the young, either from a super-abundance
of vitality, excessive reparative powers of the skin, or from powers of
will, seldom mourn so long. When the bare surface exceeds that covered by
the pitch, it is not a scandalous disrespect in the young to remove it
entirely, but a mother will seldom remove pitch or garment until both are
nearly worn out.”
This heroic treatment, while possibly efficacious in the simple ailments
by which the Indians were most often afflicted, usually resulted in a
great increase of mortality in the epidemics of smallpox following upon
the footsteps of the white man. One traveler speaks of a severe sort of
intermittent fever, to which the natives were subject, and of which so
many died that hundreds of bodies were found strewn about the country.
Having observed that the whites, even when attacked by this fever, rarely
died of it, he was inclined to ascribe the mortality among the natives to
their great cure-all, the _temescal_.
A number of places in the state bore this name, among them a small town
lying between the sites now occupied by the flourishing cities of Oakland
and Berkeley. Its citizens became discontented with the undignified
character of the name, and changed it to Alden.
SAN BERNARDINO
_San Bernardino_ is the name of a county in the southeastern part of
California, whose broad expanse is mainly made up of volcanic mountains,
desert plains, and valleys without timber or water.
The name was first given to the snow-capped peak, 11,600 feet high, lying
about twenty miles east of the city of San Bernardino, which is situated
sixty miles east of Los Ángeles, in the fruit and alfalfa region. The
name of this town is one of the most regrettable examples of corruption
that have occurred in the state, having passed from its original sweetly
flowing syllables through the successive stages of _San Berdino_,
_Berdino_, until finally reaching the acme of vulgarity as _Berdoo_, by
which appellation it is known to its immediate neighbors. If ideas of
romance, of pleasant-sounding words, and of fidelity to history make no
appeal to our fellow-Californians, let them read again the quotation
from Stevenson given above, and learn that a romantic nomenclature may
sometimes be a valuable financial asset.
_San Bernardino_ (St. Bernardinus), the patron saint of the places
bearing his name, is particularly remembered as the founder of the
charitable institution known in Spanish as _Monte de Piedad_ (hill of
pity), and in French as _Mont de Piété_, municipal pawnshops where money
was loaned on pledges to the poor. These pawnshops are still conducted in
many Spanish towns, in America as well as in Europe.
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST
_Abalone Point_, some miles to the southeast of San Pedro bay, was
no doubt so-named from the abundance of the great sea snails called
_abalone_, whose iridescent shells, the abandoned dwellings of the
dead animals, almost comparable in beauty to the mother-of-pearl, once
covered the beaches of the California coast with a glittering carpet. The
word “once” is used advisedly, for, with our usual easy-going American
negligence we have permitted these creatures of the sea, valuable for
their edible meat as well as for their exquisitely colored shells, to
be nearly destroyed by Chinese and Japanese fisheries. That the flesh
of the abalone formed a useful part of the food supply of the Indians
is evidenced by the large number of shells to be found in the mounds
along the shore. In the living state the abalone clings to the rocks on
the shore, and its grip is so tenacious that more than one unfortunate
person, caught by the foot or hand between the shell and the rock, has
been held there while death crept slowly upon him in the shape of the
rising tide. There is another Abalone Point on the northern coast.
_Agua Caliente_ (literally “hot water”), generally used in reference to
hot springs. Of these there are many in the state, one on the Indian
Reservation southeast of Riverside. Agua Caliente was originally a land
grant.
_Alamitos_ (little cottonwoods), from _álamo_, a tree of the poplar
family indigenous to California. There are several places bearing this
name in the state, one a short distance northeast of Santa Ana.
_Aliso_ (alder tree), is the name of a place on the Santa Fé Railroad,
south of Los Ángeles, near the shore, and was probably named for the
_Rancho Cañada de los Alisos_. It is probably modern.
_Azusa_ is the name of a place in Los Ángeles County, twenty miles east
of Los Ángeles, and was originally applied to the land grant there. It is
an Indian place name of a lodge, or ranchería, the original form being
_Asuksa-gna_, the _gna_ an ending which indicates place.
_Bandini_ (a surname), is the name of a place a short distance southeast
of Los Ángeles, on the Santa Fé Railroad. The founder of this family was
José Bandini, a mariner of Spanish birth, who came to California with
war supplies, and finally settled at San Diego. His son, Juan Bandini,
was a notable character in the history of the state. He held several
public offices, took part in revolutions and colonization schemes, and
finally espoused the cause of the United States. Bancroft gives the
following resumé of his character: “Juan Bandini must be regarded as one
of the most prominent men of his time in California. He was a man of fair
abilities and education, of generous impulses, of jovial temperament, a
most interesting man socially, famous for his gentlemanly manners, of
good courage in the midst of personal misfortunes, and always well-liked
and respected; indeed his record as a citizen was an excellent one.
In his struggles against fate and the stupidity of his compatriots he
became absurdly diplomatic and tricky as a politician. He was an eloquent
speaker and fluent writer.” Members of the Bandini family still occupy
positions of respect and influence in the state and have made some
important additions to its historical literature.
_Bolsa_ (pocket), a term much in use with the Spaniards to signify a
shut-in place. Bolsa is in Orange County, twelve miles north by west of
Tres Pinos, and was probably named from the land grant, _Rancho de las
Bolsas_.
_Cabezón_ (big head), is the name of a place southeast of Colton. It
was probably named for a large-headed Indian chief who lived there at
one time and who received this name in pursuance of an Indian custom of
fitting names to physical peculiarities. This name is improperly spelled
on some maps as Cabazon.
_Cahuilla_, the name of an Indian tribe, probably “Spanishized” in its
spelling from Ka-we-a. The valley and village of this name are situated
in the San Jacinto Forest Reserve, southeast of Riverside, and received
their name from a tribe who lived, in 1776, on the northern slopes of the
San Jacinto Mountains. The word _Cahuilla_ is of uncertain derivation.
_Calabazas_ (pumpkins), is northwest of Los Ángeles. This is possibly a
corruption of an Indian word, _Calahuasa_, the name of a former Chumash
village near the mission of Santa Inez. There is another possibility that
this name may have been given to the place by the Spaniards in reference
to the wild gourd which grows abundantly there and whose fruit may have
been considered by them to bear some resemblance to pumpkins, but this is
of course mere conjecture.
_Casa Blanca_ (white house), is a short distance west of Riverside, on
the Santa Fé Railroad, so-called from a large white ranch house once in
conspicuous view from the railroad station.
_Casco_ (skull), shell or outside part of anything. El Casco is situated
about twelve miles east of Riverside. Its application here has not been
ascertained.
_Conejo_ (rabbit), is the name of a number of places in the state, one of
them in the Santa Mónica Mountains, another in the Central Valley, on
the Santa Fé road.
_Cucamonga_, is an Indian name, derived from a village in San Bernardino
County, forty-two miles by rail east of Los Ángeles. It was originally
applied to the land grant at that place.
_Duarte_, a surname.
_Las Flores_ (the flowers). At this place there was once a large Indian
village, called in the native language _ushmai_, the place of roses, from
_ushla_, rose.
_Garvanza_ (chick-pea).
_Hermosa_ (beautiful), is the name of a town in San Bernardino County,
and of a beach in Los Ángeles County.
_Indio_, the Spanish word for “Indian,” is the name of a place in
Riverside County, near Colton.
_La Joya_ (the jewel).
_Laguna_ (lagoon).
_León_ (lion).
_La Mirada_ (the view).
_Los Molinos_ (the mills, or mill-stones), a name applied to a place
east of San Gabriel by the Moraga party of 1819, who went out from the
mission on a punitive expedition against the Amajaba (Mojave) Indians.
Padre Nuez, who accompanied the party, says: “On the return we passed by
a place where there was plenty of water, below a hill of red stone, very
suitable for mill-stones.” The same name, probably for similar reasons,
was applied to other places in the state, among them one in Sonoma
County, and Mill Creek in Tehama County, originally called _El Río de los
Molinos_ (The River of the Mill-stones).
_Montalvo_ (a surname), the name of a place in Ventura County, near
Ventura. This name is interesting as being the same as that borne by the
author of _Las Sergas de Esplandián_, in which the fabulous island of
_California_ plays a leading part.
_Murietta_ (a surname), the same as that of the noted bandit, Joaquín
Murietta, who once terrorized California with his depredations. The
town of Murietta, however, was not named in honor of this gentleman of
unsavory memory, but for Mr. J. Murietta, who is still living in Southern
California.
_Los Nietos_ (literally “the grandchildren”), but in this case a surname,
that of the Nieto family. _Los Nietos_ was a land grant taken up by
Manuel Nieto and José María Verdugo in 1784.
_Pasadena_, said to be derived from the Chippewa Indian language. The
full name is said to be _Weoquan Pasadena_, and the meaning to be “Crown
of the Valley.” Let no man believe in the absurd story that it means
“Pass of Eden.”
_Prado_ (meadow). “The Prado” is also the name of a famous promenade in
the city of Madrid.
_Puente_ (bridge), in Los Ángeles County, was taken from the name of the
land grant, _Rancho de la Puente_.
_Pulgas Creek_ (fleas creek).
_Redondo Beach_ (round beach), a well-known seaside resort near Los
Ángeles, is usually supposed to have received its name from the curved
line of the shore there, but the fact that a land grant occupying that
identical spot was called _Sausal Redondo_ (round willow-grove), from a
clump of willows growing there accounts for its name.
_Rivera_ (river, stream). Rivera was also the name of a pioneer family.
_Rodéo de las Aguas_ (gathering of the waters), a name once given to the
present site of La Brea Rancho, near Los Ángeles, perhaps because there
is at that point a natural amphitheatre which receives the greater
portion of the waters flowing from the neighboring mountains and the
Cahuenga Pass.
_San Clemente_ (St. Clement), the name of the island fifteen miles
south of Santa Catalina. The saint for whom this island was named “was
condemned to be cast into the sea bound to an anchor. But when the
Christians prayed, the waters were driven back for three miles, and
they saw a ruined temple which the sea had covered, and in it was found
the body of the saint, with the anchor round his neck. For many years,
at the anniversary of his death, the sea retreated for seven days, and
pilgrimages were made to this submarine tomb.”—(_Stories of the Saints._)
_San Jacinto_ (St. Hyacinth), was a Silesian nobleman who became a monk,
and was noted for his intellectual superiority, as well as for his
piety. San Jacinto is the name of a town in Riverside County, thirty
miles southeast of Riverside, in the fruit region, and of the range of
mountains in the same county.
_San Juan Point_ (St. John Point).
_San Matéo Point_ (St. Matthew Point).
_San Onofre_ (St. Onophrius), was a hermit saint whose chief claim to
sanctity seems to have been that he deprived himself of all the comforts
of life and lived for sixty years in the desert, “during which time he
never uttered a word except in prayer, nor saw a human face.”
_San Pedro_ (St. Peter), is on San Pedro bay, twenty-six miles south of
Los Ángeles. St. Peter, the fisherman apostle and companion of St. Paul,
is usually represented as the custodian of the keys of Heaven and Hell,
one key being of gold and the other of iron. “There is a legend that the
Gentiles shaved his head in mockery, and that from this originated the
tonsure of the priests.” Peter suffered martyrdom by crucifixion, “but
traditions disagree in regard to the place where he suffered.” The name
Peter is said to signify “a rock.” “Thou art Peter, on this rock have I
founded My church.”—(Matthew, 16, 18.)
_Saticoy_ was the name of a former Chumash Indian village on the lower
part of Santa Paula River, in Ventura County, about eight miles from the
sea. The present town of Saticoy is on the Santa Clara River, in Ventura
County, near Ventura.
_Serra_ (a surname), probably given in honor of the celebrated founder of
the California missions.
_El Toro_ (the bull).
_Trabuco Canyon_ (literally blunderbuss canyon), from _trabuco_, a short,
wide-mouthed gun formerly used by the Spaniards, although this may not be
the true derivation of the name in this case. One writer has translated
this name as “land much tumbled about,” but where he obtained such a
meaning remains an impenetrable mystery. Trabuco may be a surname here.
_Valle Verde_ (green valley), incorrectly spelled on the map as _Val
Verde_.
_Valle Vista_ (valley view), is in Riverside County, five miles northwest
of San Jacinto. This name is modern and incorrect in construction.
_Verdugo_ was named for the Verdugo family, the owners of the _Rancho
San Rafael_, northeast of Los Ángeles and near the base of the Verdugo
mountains. José María Verdugo was one of the grantees of the Nietos grant
in 1784.
_Vicente Point_ (Point Vincent). This point was named in 1793 by George
Vancouver, the English explorer, in honor of Friar Vicente Santa María,
“one of the reverend fathers of the mission of Buena Ventura.”
[Illustration: IN THE VICINITY OF SANTA BÁRBARA]
V
IN THE VICINITY OF SANTA BÁRBARA
_Santa Bárbara_, the charming little town that dreams away its existence
among the flowers of its old gardens, on the shore of the sheltered
stretch of water formed by the islands lying to the seaward, was named
for a noble lady of Heliopolis, the daughter of Dioscorus. She became
converted to Christianity, and was in consequence cruelly persecuted
and finally beheaded by her own father. “The legend that her father was
struck by lightning in punishment for this crime probably caused her to
be regarded by the common people as the guardian saint against tempest
and fire, and later, by analogy, as the protectress of artillery-men
and miners.” (Catholic Encyclopedia.) For this reason her image was
placed over the doors of powder magazines, and her name came at last to
be applied to the magazines themselves, which are known to the Spanish
people as _santabárbaras_. Thus is explained the apparent incongruity
between the name of the gentle saint and the places for storage of the
instruments of savage war.
At the time of the arrival of the Spaniards the shores of the Santa
Bárbara channel probably supported a denser native population than any
other part of the state. The gracious climate and never-failing food
supply furnished by the generous waters of the ocean, enabled the Indians
to live at ease.
When Cabrillo entered the channel in 1542, he reported that: “A great
number of Indians issued from the bushes, yelling and dancing, and making
signs, inviting us to come on shore. They laid down their bows and arrows
and came to the vessel in a good canoe. They possessed boats, large
enough to carry twelve or fourteen men, well-constructed of bent planks
and cemented with bitumen.”
[Illustration: MISSION OF SANTA BÁRBARA.
“ ... its broad steps are deeply worn by the feet of many generations of
worshipers.”]
These Indians were of a higher order of intelligence than those further
north, and were skilled in some of the arts, including the making of
excellent pottery. They were expert fishermen, using nets for the
purpose, and often eating the fish raw. They wore their hair long, tied
up with long cords, to which many small daggers of flint, wood and bone
were attached. They had some notion of music, using a primitive sort
of flute, or whistle, made of the hollow bones of birds. They lived in
conical houses, which were covered well down to the ground.
When Father Serra passed that way, more than two centuries later, he
found the same conditions of population, counting as many as twenty
populous villages along the channel. He was moved to bitter tears of
grief over the delay in establishing a mission where so rich a harvest
of souls lay ready to his hand. He died before this dearest wish of his
heart was accomplished, yet Santa Bárbara may justly claim the honor of
his presence at her birth, for he took part in the establishment of the
presidio, which occurred in 1783, three years before the building of the
mission. In Palou’s _Life of Serra_ he describes that occasion thus: “The
party traveled along the coast of the channel, in sight of the islands
which form it, and when they judged it to be about half-way, about nine
leagues from San Buenaventura, they stopped and selected a site for
the presidio, in sight of the beach, which there forms a sort of bay,
furnishing anchorage for ships. On this beach there was a large village
of _Gentiles_. Here the cross was raised, Father Serra blessed it and the
land, and held mass. The following day they began to cut wood for the
building of the chapel, the priest’s house, officials’ houses, cuartel,
_almacenes_ (storehouses), houses for families of married soldiers and
the stockade.”
The mission, which is still in an excellent state of preservation, was
not established until December 4, 1786, although Serra looked upon that
location as the most desirable in California, and spent the last years
of his life in constant efforts to urge on the authorities to the work.
That his hopes were realized to the full after his death, and that large
numbers of natives, as well as the succeeding white parishioners, knelt
before the altar dedicated to the gentle Santa Bárbara, is evidenced by
the deeply worn marks of several generations of feet to be seen in the
wide flight of steps at the entrance.
A circumstance that makes Santa Bárbara unique among the missions is that
within her gardens, hidden behind their secluding walls, there is a “holy
of holies” where no woman’s foot is permitted to desecrate the sacred
ground. It is quite likely that this rule is kept up by the brothers
now in charge of the mission, rather through a desire to preserve the
traditions of the old church than through any unwarranted prejudice
against the fair sex.
SAN BUENAVENTURA
_San Buenaventura Mission_, at the town now called Ventura, stands near
the southeastern end of the Santa Bárbara channel. It was the last work
of the great Serra, and was founded March 31, 1782, by the venerable
president himself and Father Cambón. Palou gives us a detailed account
of this event in his _Life of Serra_: “March 26, the whole party, the
largest ever engaged in the founding of a mission, soldiers, settlers,
and their families, muleteers, etc., but only two priests, Padres Serra
and Cambón, set out.... They went on to the head of the channel, a site
near the beach, on whose edge there was a large town of _Gentiles_,
(unbaptized Indians), well built of pyramidal houses made of straw. They
raised the cross, erected an arbor to serve as chapel, made an altar
and adorned it. On the last day of March they took possession and held
the first mass. The natives assisted willingly in building the chapel,
and continued friendly, helping to build a house for the padre,—all of
wood. The soldiers began to cut timbers for their houses, and for the
stockade. They also went to work at once to conduct water by ditches
from a neighboring stream, to bring it conveniently near the houses, and
to serve to irrigate crops. By means of a neophyte, brought from San
Gabriel, they were able to communicate with the natives, and to let them
know that their only purpose in coming here was to direct their souls to
Heaven.”
The patron of this mission was originally named Giovanni Fidanga. When a
child he fell very ill, and was taken by his mother to St. Francis to be
healed. When the saint saw him recovered he exclaimed: “O buena ventura!”
whereupon his mother dedicated him to God by the name of _Buenaventura_
(good fortune). It is a pity that a name of such happy augury should be
mutilated by the amputation of its first part, the town and county now
appearing as _Ventura_.
ASUNCIÓN
In the diaries of the Spanish pioneers, a distinct impression is conveyed
that the California Indians, so far from being morose and taciturn, as
their brothers in other parts of the United States are often portrayed,
were rather a merry lot, and received the white men everywhere in their
long journey up the coast, with music, feasting and the dance. In fact,
we run across a complaint now and then that their hospitality was
sometimes so insistent that their guests suffered from loss of sleep, the
serenading being kept up during the entire night.
Their music, no doubt of the most primitive sort, was produced by means
of “a small whistle, sometimes double, sometimes single, about the size
and length of a common fife. It was held in the mouth by one end, without
the aid of the fingers, and only about two notes could be sounded on
it.”—(Bancroft, from Cal. Farmer.)
Along the Santa Bárbara channel the festivities in honor of the strangers
were especially lively. At _Asunción_ (Ascension), a point on the coast
five leagues below Carpintería, they received a reception of which we
read in Costansó’s diary of the Portolá expedition of 1769, date of
August 14: “We reached the coast, and came in sight of a real town,
situated on a tongue or point of land, right on the shore, which it
dominated, seeming to command the waters. We counted as many as thirty
large and capacious houses, spherical in form, well built and thatched
with grass. We judged there could not be less than four hundred souls
in the town. These natives are well built and of a good disposition,
very agile and alert, diligent and skillful. Their handiness and ability
were at their best in the construction of their canoes, made of good
pine boards, well joined and calked, and of a pleasing form. They handle
these with equal skill, and three or four men go out to sea in them to
fish, for they will hold eight or ten men. They use long, double-bladed
paddles, and row with indescribable agility and swiftness. All their work
is neat and well finished, and what is most worthy of surprise is that
to work the wood and stone they have no other tools than those made of
flint.... We saw, and obtained in exchange for strings of glass beads,
and other trinkets, some baskets or trays made of reeds, with different
designs; wooden plates, and bowls of different forms and sizes, made of
one piece, so that not even those turned out in a lathe could be more
successful. They presented us with a quantity of fish, particularly the
kind known as _bonito_; it had as good a flavor as that caught in the
tunny-fisheries of Cartegena de Levante, and on the coasts of Granada. We
gave it the name of _La Asunción de Nuestra Señora_ (the Ascension of Our
Lady), because we reached it on the eve of that festival.”—(Translation
edited by Frederick T. Teggart.)
EL BAILARÍN
_El Bailarín_ (the dancer). This spot, one league from Carpintería, was
named in honor of a nimble-footed Indian, who cheered the weary travelers
on their way, as thus told by Father Crespi, in his diary of the Portolá
expedition: “This place was named through the notable fact of an Indian
having feasted us extraordinarily two leagues beyond (always coasting the
sea-shore), where there is a large town on a point of land on the same
shore; which Indian was a robust man of good form, and a great dancer;
through respect for him we called this town, of which our friend was a
resident, _El Pueblo del Bailarín_ (the Town of the Dancer).”
_Ranchería del Baile de las Indias_ (Village of the Dance of the Indian
Women). As a rule, the women seemed to take no part in the dances, but
Costansó tells of one occasion when they joined in the festivities:
“They honored us with a dance, and it was the first place where we saw
the women dance. Two of these excelled the others; they had a bunch of
flowers in their hands, and accompanied the dance with various graceful
gestures and movements, without getting out of time in their songs. We
called the place the _Ranchería del Baile de las Indias_.”
This place was about five leagues from Point Pedernales.
CARPINTERÍA
_Carpintería_ is the name of a little cluster of houses near the shore
about ten miles east of Santa Bárbara. It lies in a region once densely
populated with natives of very “gentle and mild disposition.” The story
of its naming is told by Father Crespi, of the Portolá party: “Not very
far from the town we saw some springs of asphaltum. These Indians have
many canoes, and at that time were constructing one, for which reason the
soldiers named this town Carpintería (carpenter shop), but I baptized it
with the name of _San Roque_.”
MONTECITO
_Montecito_ (little hill or little wood), is the name of a small village
about six miles from Santa Bárbara. The country in this vicinity, through
its extraordinary charm of climate and scenery, has attracted a large
number of very rich people, whose splendid country houses, in bizarre
contrast, now occupy the self-same spots where the Indians once raised
their flimsy huts of straw.
SANTA CRUZ ISLAND
While traversing the shore of Santa Bárbara channel, the Portolá
expedition of 1769 took time to make trips to the islands and bestow
names upon them. The island of Santa Cruz received its name from a
rather trivial circumstance. By some chance the padres lost there a staff
which bore a cross on the end. They gave it up as irretrievably lost,
so were the more pleased when the Indians appeared the following day to
restore it. From this they gave the island the name of _Santa Cruz_ (Holy
Cross).
RANCHERÍA DE LA ESPADA
Of the _Ranchería de la Espada_ (village of the sword), Captain Fages, of
the Portolá expedition says: “Two and a half leagues northwest of Point
Conception, another glen is found with a population of twenty hearths,
with 250 Indians, more or less. The natives of the settlement here are
extremely poor and starved, so that they can scarcely live, being without
canoes, in rugged land, and short of firewood. While here a soldier lost
his sword, leaving it carelessly fastened, so that they took it from his
belt. But the Indians who saw this theft themselves ran in pursuit of
the thief, and deprived him of the article in order that its owner might
recover it.” From this the place received the name of the _Ranchería de
la Espada_, and the little story is still commemorated in the name of
Espada Landing.
MATILIJA
_Matilija Creek_ and _Matilija Springs_, in Ventura County, derive their
name from an Indian village, one of those mentioned in the mission
archives. The name is best known as applied to the Matilija poppy, that
flower of the gods which has its native habitat along the banks of the
creek. This giant poppy, by reason of its extraordinary size and delicate
beauty, has a just claim to be called “queen of all California’s wild
flowers,” as the Sequoia is king of her trees. It is a perennial plant,
of shrubby character, and grows wild in the southern part of the state,
from the Santa María River southward, extending into Lower California,
where it spreads over large areas. It flourishes in particular luxuriance
in the Matilija canyon, but the popular idea that that spot was its only
habitat is erroneous. The shrub reaches a height of eight or ten feet,
has gray-green foliage, and bears splendid, six-petaled white flowers,
often six or seven inches in diameter, “of a crepe-like texture, pure
glistening white, with bright yellow centers.” “It not only grows in
fertile valleys, but seeks the seclusion of remote canyons, and nothing
more magnificent could be imagined than a steep canyon-side covered
with the great bushy plants, thickly covered with the enormous white
flowers.”—(Miss Parsons, quoted by J. Burt Davy, in _Bailey’s Cyclopedia
of American Horticulture_.)
POINT PEDERNALES
Captain Fages, of the Portolá party, says of this place: “Going
two leagues through high land, and with a good outlook over the
sea-coast, a flowing stream appears, with very good water, and near it
a poor settlement of only ten houses, probably numbering about sixty
inhabitants, crowded together. We stopped at the place near where a strip
or point of land extends to the sea. There we gathered a multitude of
flints, good for fire-arms, and so this place is called _Los Pedernales_
(the flints).”
Point Pedernales still remains as the name of “that point of land
extending into the sea,” a few miles north of Point Conception.
CAMULOS
_Camulos_, also spelled _Kamulas_, was the name of an Indian village near
San Buenaventura. This village is among those mentioned in the mission
archives, and is noted as the home of Ramona, the heroine of Mrs. Helen
Hunt Jackson’s romance. The meaning of the word _Camulos_, according to
Professor A. L. Kroeber, is “my fruit.”
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST
_Los Álamos_ (the cottonwoods), is in Santa Bárbara County, northwest
of Santa Bárbara. The _álamo_ is a species of poplar tree indigenous to
California and widely spread throughout the state.
_Argüello Point_ is on the coast of Santa Bárbara County, just south
of Point Pedernales. Argüello is a surname, that of a pioneer family,
of which José Darío Argüello was the founder. “For many years
Don José was the most prominent, influential and respected man in
California.”—(Bancroft.)
_Argüello Point_ was named by Vancouver in honor of the Spanish
governor.—(Mr. Charles B. Turrill.)
_El Cojo_ (the lame one). This place, near Point Conception, was so-named
by the Spaniards because they saw here an Indian chief who was lame.
_Point Concepción_, the point at the southwestern extremity of Santa
Bárbara County, was so-named in reference to the “immaculate conception”
of the Virgin.
_Los Dos Pueblos_ (the two towns), is on the coast a few miles west of
Santa Bárbara. On October 16, 1542, the Cabrillo expedition anchored
opposite two Indian villages here, and named the place _Los Dos Pueblos_.
“Although these villages were separated only by a small stream, their
inhabitants were of a different race and language, those on one side
being short, thick and swarthy, and on the other tall, slender and not
so dark. The depth of the kitchen refuse at the site of these two towns
indicates that these Indians had lived here since the Christian era and
were contemporary with the mound builders.”—(_History of Santa Bárbara
County._)
_Gaviota_ (sea-gull), is on the shore a few miles west of Santa Bárbara.
Father Crespi mentions having given this name to another place further
down the coast: “We reached an estuary, on whose border stood a ranchería
of fifty-two huts, with three hundred people. For having killed a
sea-gull here, the soldiers called this place _La Gaviota_, but I named
it _San Luís Rey de Francia_.” As _San Luís Rey_ it has remained upon the
map.
_Gaviota Pass_ is an important gap in the Santa Inez range.
Every one who has crossed the bay of San Francisco in the winter season
must have rejoiced in the sight of the flying convoy of those beautiful
creatures, the _gaviotas_, by which each ferry-boat is accompanied.
_Goleta_ (schooner), is the name of a village in Santa Bárbara County,
seven miles west of Santa Bárbara.
_Guadalupe_ (a Christian name). The town is near the northern border of
Santa Bárbara County.
_Lompoc_ is one of the names of Indian villages taken from the mission
archives. It is situated fifty miles northwest of Santa Bárbara, on the
Southern Pacific Railroad.
_Nojoqui_, in Santa Bárbara County, was presumably the name of an Indian
village.
_Los Olivos_ (the olives), is in Santa Bárbara County, on the Coast Line
Railroad.
_La Piedra Pintada_ (the painted rock), is about eighty miles from Santa
Bárbara. Here there was a stone wigwam, forty or fifty yards in diameter,
whose walls were covered with paintings in the form of halos and circles,
with radiations from the center.—(_History of Santa Bárbara County._)
_Punta Gorda_ (fat or broad point), is one of the points of land running
into the sea from the Santa Bárbara Coast. Its name indicates its shape.
_Punta de las Ritas_ (point of the rites), perhaps refers to some
religious ceremony held upon that spot.
_Rincón Point_ (corner point), is one of the many points of land running
out from the Santa Bárbara Coast.
_Point Sal_, was named for Hermenegi do Sal, who was one of the prominent
figures in the early history of Southern California. He was a Spanish
soldier who came to this coast in 1776 with Anza and his party of
colonists. Sal filled many important military offices. This point was
named by Vancouver for this official, who was at one time commandante of
the presidio of San Francisco, in return for signal courtesies shown by
him in 1792, when he permitted Vancouver to go to the mission of Santa
Clara, this being the first occasion when this part of Spanish America
was penetrated by any foreigner.
_Sal Si Puedes_ (get out if you can). Several places in the state, one in
the Santa Cruz Mountains, another in Santa Bárbara County, received this
name, so eloquent of the rough road that the Spaniards sometimes had to
travel. Captain Argüello, in his diary of the expedition of 1821, refers
to his struggles in getting out of a certain canyon in these terms: “On
account of its difficult situation it was named _Montaña de Maltrato y
Arroyo de Sal si Puedes_” (mountain of ill-treatment and creek of get out
if you can).
_Santa Inez_ (St. Agnes), is the name of a river in Santa Bárbara
County which rises in the coast range and falls into the Pacific Ocean
about ten miles north of Cape Conception. The town of the same name is
situated on this river. The Mission Santa Inez was founded September 17,
1804, by Padres Tapis, Calzada and Gutierrez. It flourished for a time,
but was greatly damaged by an earthquake in 1812, was rebuilt and damaged
again by the Indians in the revolt of 1824, and its partially ruined
buildings still remain to tell of a vanished past. Its patroness, St.
Agnes, was one of the four great virgin martyrs of the Latin Church. She
was a Roman maiden of great beauty, and was condemned to death by the
sword, by the Prefect Sempronius, in revenge for her refusal to marry
his son, on the ground that she was “already affianced to a husband whom
she loved, meaning Jesus.” Before causing her death Sempronius attempted
to procure her dishonor by having her conveyed to a house of infamy,
“but when she prayed to Christ that she might not be dishonored, she saw
before her a shining white garment which she put on with joy, and the
room was filled with great light.”
_Santa María_ (St. Mary), so-named in honor of the mother of Christ, is
in Santa Bárbara County, near the Santa María River.
[Illustration: MISSION OF SANTA INEZ, FOUNDED IN 1804.
“Its patron saint is St. Agnes, one of the four great virgin martyrs of
the Latin Church.”]
_Santa Paula_ (St. Paula), is in Ventura County, thirty-five miles west
of San Fernando, on the Southern Pacific Railroad. “St. Paula was a noble
Roman matron, a pupil and disciple of St. Jerome. Though descended from
the Scipios and the Gracchi, and accustomed to luxurious self-indulgence,
she preferred to follow her saintly teacher to Bethlehem and devote
herself to a religious life. She built a monastery, a hospital, and three
nunneries at Bethlehem.”—(_Stories of the Saints._)
_Sereno_ (serene), a place on the shore near Santa Bárbara, whose placid
charm well befits its name.
_Ventura_ (fortune), a town near the southeastern end of the Santa
Bárbara channel.
[Illustration: THE SAN LUÍS OBISPO GROUP]
VI
THE SAN LUÍS OBISPO GROUP
_San Luís Obispo_ (St. Louis the Bishop). Travelers on the Coast Line,
whose attention is attracted to the smiling vale where the pretty town
of _San Luís Obispo_ nestles in the hollow of the hills, about eight
miles from the ocean and ninety to the northwest of Santa Bárbara, will
doubtless be pleased to learn something of its history. So peaceful is
the aspect of the valley at this time that it comes rather as a surprise
to read, in the diaries of the Portolá expedition of 1769, stories of
fierce fights with bears, which then haunted this place in such numbers
that the explorers gave it the name of _La Cañada de los Osos_ (the glen
of the bears). From Father Crespi we get some account of the numbers
and ferocity of these animals: “In this glen we saw troops of bears,
which have the ground ploughed up and full of scratches which they make
in search of the roots that form their food. Upon these roots, of which
there are many of a good savor and taste, the _Gentiles_ (unbaptized
Indians), also live. The soldiers, who went out to hunt, succeeded in
killing one bear with gun-shots, and experienced the ferocity of these
animals. Upon feeling themselves wounded they attack the hunter at full
speed, and he can only escape by using the greatest dexterity. They do
not yield except when the shot succeeds in reaching the head or heart.
The one that the soldiers killed received nine balls before falling, and
did not fall until one struck him in the head.”
Captain Fages, of the same expedition, gives a similar account “....a
spacious glen with a rivulet of very good water.... In said glen they saw
whole herds of bears, which have ploughed up all the ground, where they
dug to seek their livelihood from the roots that it produces. They are
ferocious brutes, and of very difficult hunting, throwing themselves with
incredible speed and anger upon the hunter, who only escapes by means of
a swift horse. They do not yield to the shot unless it be in the head or
heart.”
[Illustration: MISSION OF SAN LUÍS OBISPO, FOUNDED IN 1772.
“ ... in a smiling vale, which was once the haunt of great troops of
bears.”]
Miguel Costansó, of the same party, says: “In the afternoon, as they had
seen many tracks of bears, six soldiers went out hunting on horseback,
and succeeded in shooting one bear. It was an enormous animal; it
measured fourteen palms from the sole of the feet to the top of its head;
its feet were more than a foot long; and it must have weighed over 375
pounds. We ate the flesh and found it savory and good.”—(Translation
edited by Frederick J. Teggart.)
At a later date, when the mission at Monterey was in serious danger of
a famine, Captain Fages called to mind the experiences in the _Cañada
de los Osos_, and headed a hunting expedition to that region for the
purpose of securing a supply of bear meat. The party succeeded in killing
a considerable number of the animals, and were thus able to relieve
the scarcity at Monterey. The name of _Los Osos_ (the bears), is still
applied to a valley in the vicinity of San Luís Obispo.
Finding this spot highly suitable for a settlement, in the matters of
climate, arable land and water, points always carefully considered by the
padres, the mission of _San Luís Obispo de Tolosa_ (St. Louis the Bishop
of Toulouse), was established by Padre Serra, September 1, 1772, in _La
Cañada de los Osos_. In the usual course of events, the name of the
mission was extended to the town and finally to the county.
The story of the patron saint of this mission runs as follows: “St. Louis
of Toulouse was the nephew of St. Louis King of France, and son of the
King of Naples and Sicily. Like his kingly uncle-saint, he was piously
reared by his mother. When he was but fourteen, his father, being made
prisoner by the King of Aragón, gave Louis and his brother as hostages.
He became wearied of everything but religion, and in 1294, when he was
made free, he gave all his royal rights to his brother Robert, and became
a monk of the Order of St. Francis. He was then twenty-two years old.
Soon he was made Bishop of Toulouse; and he set out, bare-footed and
clothed as a friar, to take his new office. He went into Provence on a
charitable mission, and died at the castle of Brignolles, where he was
born. He was first buried at Marseilles, then removed to Valencia, where
he was enshrined. His pictures represent him as young, beardless, and of
gentle face. He has the fleur-de-lys embroidered on his cope, or on some
part of his dress. The crown which he gave away lies at his feet, while
he wears the mitre of a bishop.”—(_Stories of the Saints._)
SAN MIGUEL
_San Miguel_ (St. Michael), situated about forty-seven miles northeast
of San Luís Obispo, is the site of Mission San Miguel, founded July 25,
1797, by Padres Lasuén and Sitjar. It is said that “the lands of this
mission extended from the Tulares on the east to the sea on the west, and
from the north boundary of the San Luís Obispo district to the south line
of San Antonio. It had its work-shops and little factories where the good
padres taught the Indians the useful arts. Its property was confiscated
in 1836, and sold at auction in 1846.”
St. Michael, in whose honor this mission was named, “is regarded as
the first and mightiest of all created spirits. He it was whom God
commissioned to expel Satan and the rebellious angels from Heaven. His
office now is believed to be two-fold, including that of patron saint
of the Church on earth, and Lord of the souls of the dead; presenting
the good to God and sending the evil and wicked away to torment.” In
pictures St. Michael is always represented as young and beautiful,
sometimes as the Lord of souls in pictures of death, sometimes in armor
as the conqueror of Satan.
PASO DE ROBLES
_Paso de Robles_ (pass of the oaks), known far and wide for its hot
sulphur springs, where the sick of many lands find surcease from their
pain, is situated twenty-nine miles north of San Luís Obispo. It was
named for the reason indicated by Father Crespi, who says: “....in a
valley in the hollow of the Santa Lucía Mountains, called _Los Robles_,
for the great abundance of these trees with which it is populated.”
It should be explained that the _roble_ is not the evergreen, or
live-oak, which is called _encino_. At Leland Stanford Jr. University the
names of these two species of oaks have been rather poetically used for
the students’ dormitories,—Encina Hall for the men, and Roble Hall for
the women.
[Illustration: MISSION OF SAN MIGUEL, FOUNDED IN 1797.
“It once had its work-shops and little factories where good padres taught
the Indians useful arts.”]
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST
_Arroyo Grande_ (big creek), a village in San Luís Obispo County, fifteen
miles southeast of San Luís Obispo.
_Atascadero_ (boggy ground, quagmire).
_Avenal_ (a field sown with oats).
_Buchón_ (big craw), is the name of the point on the coast directly
opposite the town of San Luís Obispo, and has a significance not
altogether agreeable. The Spanish soldiers called the place _Buchón_ from
an Indian in the neighborhood who was the unfortunate possessor of an
enormous goitre, which was so large that it hung down upon his breast.
_Cañada del Osito_ (glen of the little bear), so-called because some
Indians from the mountains offered the Spaniards a present of a bear cub.
_Cayucos_ is the name of a village in San Luís Obispo County, eighteen
miles northwest of San Luís Obispo. The word _cayuco_ is probably Indian
in origin, and is used in different senses in different parts of America.
In Venezuela it means a small fishing boat, built to hold only one
person, while in Cuba it means “head.” As this place is on the shore, it
was probably named in reference to Indian fishing skiffs.
_Cholame_ (the name of an Indian tribe).
_Cuesta_ (hill, mount, ridge, also family name).
_Esteros_ (estuaries, creeks into which the tide flows at flood time).
_Estero Point_ (estuary point).
_Estrella_ (star).
_López_ (a surname).
_Morro_ (headland, bluff). Morro is the name of a hamlet in San Luís
Obispo County, on the shore, twelve miles northwest of San Luís Obispo.
_Nacimiento_ (birth). This word is generally used by the Spaniards in the
sense of the birth of Christ.
_Los Osos_ (the bears).
_Piedras Blancas_ (white stones, or rocks), the name of a point on the
coast.
_Pismo_, an Indian word said to mean “place of fish”, but this definition
is not based upon scientific authority.
_Pozo_ (well, or pool), is the name of a village in San Luís Obispo
County.
_San Simeón_ (St. Simeon), is the name of a village in San Luís Obispo
County, on the shore twenty miles south of Jolón. It has a good harbor.
St. Simeon, the patron saint of this place, was one of the apostles, and
is called “the Prophet” because he was the translator of the book of
Isaiah in which is made the prophecy “Behold a virgin shall conceive.”
St. Simeon Stylites, who set the fashion of the pillar-hermits, spent
almost half of the fifth century on the summit of a column sixty feet in
height, drawing up his meager food and water in a pail which he lowered
for the purpose. This peculiar and apparently senseless mode of life has
been partially justified by the reflection that the notoriety he thus
gained brought curious crowds of pagans about his pillar, to whom he was
enabled to preach the Christian doctrine. It is said that he converted
many thousands of the nomadic Saracen tribes to Christianity.
_Santa Lucía_ (St. Lucy), is the name of a section of the coast range of
mountains in the central part of the state. St. Lucy is the protectress
against all diseases of the eye, and is the patroness of the laboring
poor.
_Santa Margarita_ (St. Margaret), is the name of a town in San Luís
Obispo County, on the Southern Pacific Railroad. St. Margaret is the
patroness who presides over births.
[Illustration: IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF MONTEREY]
VII
IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF MONTEREY
_Monterey_. “_Llegamos á este puerto de Monterey á 16 de Diciembre, 1602
á las siete de la noche_” (We arrived at this port of Monterey on the
sixteenth of December, 1602, at seven o’clock in the evening).—(From the
diary of Sebastián Vizcaíno.)
When Vizcaíno sailed into the beautiful blue bay of Monterey, and looked
about him at the ring of hills, dark with the dense growth of pines
covering them from summit to base, he became at once enamored with the
place, and wrote enthusiastically to his Spanish Majesty concerning
it. In a letter of the date of May 23, 1603, he says: “Among the ports
of most importance which I found was one in latitude 37, which I named
Monterrey. As I wrote to your majesty from there on the twenty-eighth
of September of the said year, it is all that can be desired for the
convenience and sea-port of the ships of the Philippine line, whence they
come to explore this coast. The port is sheltered from all winds, and
has on the shore many pines to supply the ships with masts of any size
that they may wish, and also live-oaks, oaks, rosemary, rock-roses, roses
of Alexandria, good hunting of rabbits, hares, partridges and flying
birds of different sorts. The land is of mild temperature, and of good
waters, and very fertile, judging by the luxuriant growth of the trees
and plants, for I saw some fruits from them, particularly of chestnuts
and acorns, larger than those of Spain; and it is well-populated with
people, whose disposition I saw to be soft, gentle, docile, and very fit
to be reduced to the Holy Church. Their food is of many and various seeds
that they have and also wild game, such as deer, some of which are larger
than cows, also bears, and cattle and buffalo, and many others. The
Indians are of good body, white of countenance, and the women somewhat
smaller, and well-favored. Their dress is of the people of the beach, of
the skins of seals, of which there are an abundance, which they tan and
prepare better than in Spain.”
[Illustration: MONTEREY IN 1850.
“We arrived at this port of Monterey on the sixteenth of December, 1602,
at seven o’clock in the evening.”—(Sebastián Vizcaíno)]
At first thought it would seem that Vizcaíno must have been in error
about finding buffalo at Monterey, but investigation shows that in 1530
those animals “ranged through what is now New Mexico, Utah, Oregon,
Washington, and British Columbia.”—(_Handbook of American Indians._)
Oregon is not so far away but that scattering herds may have wandered as
far as Monterey, and that Vizcaíno actually saw them there. It has been
suggested, also, that he may have mistaken the tracks of the great elk
for those of buffalo. In calling the Indians “white,” he was, no doubt,
speaking comparatively. According to the diaries of the Spaniards, the
natives of different sections varied considerably in complexion. What
he meant by “chestnuts” can only be conjectured, since that tree is not
indigenous to Monterey, but it is possible that the nut of the wild
buck-eye, which resembles the chestnut in size and shape, may have been
mistaken for it by the Spaniards.
Vizcaíno named the port in honor of Gaspar de Zúñiga, Count of Monterey,
at that time Viceroy of Mexico. The word itself, whose literal meaning is
“the King’s wood,” or “the King’s mountain,” since _monte_ may be used in
either sense, was formerly spelled Monterrey, Monterey, or Monte Rey.
When Father Serra arrived at Monterey in 1770, he decided to make it the
headquarters of all the California missions, and it was there that the
rest of his life was spent, excepting the periods of absence required in
visiting the other missions, and in one visit to Mexico. Very shortly
after the landing of the party in a little cove at the edge of the
present town, it was decided that not enough arable land existed at that
point for the support of the mission, so the religious establishment was
removed to Carmel Bay, while the Presidio and its chapel remained at
Monterey.
The Mission _San Carlos Borroméo_ (St. Charles Borroméo), was founded
June 3, 1770, near the shore of the charming little bay of Carmel,
about seven miles from Monterey. This church, now in an excellent state
of repair, through the efforts of the late Father Ángelo Casanova, is
distinguished above all the others, “for under its altar lies buried all
that is mortal of the remains of its venerable founder, Junípero Serra.”
[Illustration: MISSION OF SAN CARLOS BORROMÉO, FOUNDED IN 1770.
“Under its altar lies buried all that is mortal of its venerable founder,
Junípero Serra.”]
Its patron saint, St. Charles Borroméo, belonged to a noble family of
Lombardy. Being a second son, he was dedicated to the church at a very
early age, and soon rose to distinction, receiving the cardinal’s hat at
twenty-three. The death of his elder brother placed the family fortune at
his disposal, but he gave it all in charity, reserving for himself merely
enough for bread and water, and straw on which to sleep. In public he
gave feasts, but never partook of them himself. At the time of the plague
in Milan, when all others fled from the city, he remained to attend the
sick. His remains repose in a rich shrine in that city.
SAN ANTONIO
At _San Antonio_ (St. Anthony), in Monterey County, between Kings City
and Jolón, Father Serra established the mission of San Antonio de Padua,
July 14, 1771. In connection with its establishment, Palou tells a story
that brings out one of the most marked characteristics of the venerable
founder, his ardent enthusiasm: “They [the founding party] departed
for the Santa Lucía Mountains, taking priests for the new mission, the
required escort of soldiers, and all necessaries. Twenty-five leagues
south-southeast from Monterey, they arrived at the hollow of this ridge,
where they found a great _cañada_, which they called _Robles_ (oaks),
from the great number of those trees. Finding a level plain in the same
_cañada_, bordering on a river which they called _San Antonio_, and
which they thought to be a good site, for the good flow of water, even
in the dry month of July, which could be conducted to the lands without
difficulty, all agreed upon the choice of this spot. Serra ordered the
mules to be unloaded, and the bells to be hung up on the branch of a
tree. As soon as they were hung up, he began to ring them, crying out,
‘Ho! Gentiles, come, come to the Holy Church, come to receive the faith
of Jesus Christ!’” One of the other priests remonstrated with him, saying
it was idle to ring the bells in the absence of the gentiles, but Serra
said, “Let me ring, let me relieve my heart, so that all the wild people
in this mountain range may hear!” It happened that some natives were
attracted by the ringing of the bells, and came to witness the first
mass, which Serra regarded as a good augury.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE QUADRANGLE AT SAN CARLOS MISSION.
“Here the daily life of the mission was carried on.”]
St. Anthony of Padua, the patron of this place, was a Portuguese by
birth, who entered the Franciscan Order. He went as a missionary to the
Moors, but was compelled by illness to return to Europe, where he had
great success in Italy and France as a preacher. Among many miracles
accredited to him is the one thus related: “When preaching at the
funeral of a very rich man, St. Anthony denounced his love of money, and
exclaimed, ‘His heart is buried in his treasure chest; go seek it there
and you will find it.’ The friends of the man broke open the chest, and
to their surprise, found the heart; they then examined his body and found
that his heart was indeed wanting.”—(_Stories of the Saints._)
POINT CYPRESS
_La Punta de los Cipreses_ (Point Cypress), is the home of those
wonderful trees, twisted and gnarled into a thousand fantastic shapes
by their age-long struggle against the ocean winds, which furnish yet
another proof of the part played by California in the preservation of the
rare and the unique, for this species of coniferous tree is said to be
confined to that region, not occurring in any other part of the world.
The following interesting paragraph on these trees is quoted from
_The Trees of California_, by Willis Linn Jepsen, Asst. Professor of
Dendrology in the University of California: “_Cupressus Macrocarpa_ is
limited to two localities on the ocean shore at the mouth of the Carmel
river near Monterey. The Cypress Point grove extends along the cliffs
and low bluffs from Pescadero Point to Cypress Point, a distance of
two miles, reaching inland about one-eighth of a mile. The Point Lobos
grove is much smaller. The trees are scattered over the summits of two
headlands, and cling to the edges of the cliffs, where on account of the
erosive action of the ocean, they are occasionally under-mined and fall
into the sea. Monterey Cypress is most interesting for its remarkably
restricted natural range and the exceedingly picturesque outlines
characteristic of the trees growing on the ocean shore. As a result of
their struggle with violent storms from the Pacific Ocean which break
on the unprotected cliffs and headlands of Cypress Point and Point
Lobos, they present a variety and singularity of form which is obviously
connected with their exposed habitat, and lends a never-failing interest
to these two narrow localities. Of the highly picturesque trees, the
most common type is that with long irregular arms. Such trees recall most
strikingly the classical pictures of the Cedars of Lebanon. Monterey
Cypress is of course a genuine cypress and Lebanon Cedar a genuine cedar;
the two do not even belong to the same family of conifers. Yet the
popular story that the two are the same makes so strong an appeal to the
imagination of the tourist at Monterey that the guides and promoters in
the region will doubtless never cease to disseminate it. As a consequence
the error goes into the daily press and the magazines, and is evidently
destined to flourish in perennial greenness under the guise of fact.
The wide dissemination of this fiction is all the more remarkable in
that in the case of all other unique features of the state, such as the
Sequoias and the Yosemite, our Californians have evinced a remarkable
pride in their possession, without thought of inventing a duplication of
them elsewhere.... The matter of the age of these trees has been much
exaggerated. It is a tree of rapid growth, and the older specimens are
probably not more than 200 or 300 years old.”
The above paragraph, quoted from a writer acknowledged to be one of the
best authorities on the trees of California, is given here in full, in
the hope of correcting these two common errors concerning the Monterey
Cypress,—the one that it is identical with the Cedar of Lebanon, the
other, an exaggerated notion of the great age of some of the trees. As
Professor Jepsen justly remarks, the truth in this case is a greater
matter for pride than the fiction.
POINT PINOS
_La Punta de Pinos_ (the point of pines), is situated a few miles from
Monterey, just beyond Pacific Grove. It is one of the most picturesque
points on the coast, and is the location of one of the government
light-houses.
[Illustration: ON THE SHORE NEAR LA PUNTA DE LOS CIPRESES.
“The home of those wonderful trees, twisted into a thousand fantastic
shapes by their age long struggle with the ocean winds.”]
SALINAS
When the Portolá expedition of 1769 arrived at the Salinas River, they
made the first of the series of errors which caused them to pass by the
bay of Monterey without recognizing it, for they mistook this stream
for the Carmel. The _Salinas_ (salt marshes), so-called for the chain
of salt-water ponds lying along its course, was known by various names
before a permanent one became attached to it, appearing at different
times as _El Río Elzeario_, _Santa Delfina_, and _El Río de Monterey_.
The town of Salinas is the county-seat of Monterey County and is situated
about eighteen miles east of Monterey, in the heart of an important
agricultural, dairying, and sugar-beet district.
SOLEDAD
_Soledad_ (solitude), in Monterey County, 143 miles southeast of San
Francisco, is described as “a very dry plain, with few trees, swept
by fierce winds and dust storms in summer.” No wonder they called it
_Soledad_,—Lonesometown!
Yet those same dry plains proved to be of sufficient fertility to warrant
the establishment, in 1791, of the mission of _Nuestra Señora de la
Soledad_, freely translated as “Our Lady of Sorrows,” which became the
center of a large and prosperous Indian community. The buildings of the
mission have now fallen into almost complete decay.
PÁJARO
_Pájaro_ (bird), a town in Monterey County, on the Pájaro River, which
rises on the slope of the Coast Range, and flows westerly, falling into
Monterey Bay, derives its name from a circumstance told in the diary
of the faithful Father Crespi: “We saw in this place a bird, which the
_Gentiles_ (unbaptized Indians), had killed and stuffed with straw,
and which appeared to some [of the party] to be a royal eagle; it was
measured from tip to tip of the wings, and was found to measure eleven
palms (nine feet and three inches), for which reason the soldiers called
the place _El Río del Pájaro_.” The scream of the eagle may still be
heard in the more remote parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where the
great birds are occasionally seen circling far over-head, or perched in
the tops of the tallest trees.
SANTA CRUZ
_Santa Cruz_ (holy cross), the well-known seaside resort lying at the
northern hook of the great curve that forms Monterey Bay, was named by
the Portolá expedition, as thus described by Father Crespi: “We camped
on the north side of the river [San Lorenzo], and we had a great deal of
work to cut down trees to open a little passage for our beasts.... Not
far from the river we saw a fertile spot where the grass was not burnt,
and it was a pleasure to see the pasture and the variety of herbs and
rose-bushes of Castile.” The next day they moved on again, and the diary
continues: “After proceeding about five hundred steps, we passed a large
stream of running water, which has its source among some high hills and
passes through some great table-lands of good soil, that may easily be
irrigated by the waters of the said creek. This creek was named _Santa
Cruz_.”
A mission was established at this place by Padres Salazar and López,
September 25, 1791, but the buildings finally fell into a ruinous
condition, and were removed to give place to the modern church which now
stands upon the original site.
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA
_San Juan Bautista_ (St. John the Baptist), has suffered mutilation by
the dropping of its last part, and usually appears as _San Juan_. San
Juan is a small town in San Benito County, in a fertile valley on the San
Benito River, forty-four miles southeast of San José. At this place the
mission of San Juan Bautista was founded, June 24, 1797. Although this
mission passed through some strenuous experiences, and was twice attacked
by the Indians, and somewhat damaged by repeated earthquakes in 1800, it
is still moderately well preserved.
[Illustration: MISSION OF SAN JUAN BAUTISTA, FOUNDED IN 1797.
“Although twice attacked by Indians and damaged by earthquakes in 1800,
it is still moderately well preserved.”]
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST
_Agua Amargosa_ (bitter water), a place in San Benito County now known
by its English translation, “Bitter Water,” and so-called from mineral
springs.
_Año Neuvo_ (new year), is the name of a prominent cape running out from
the shore of Santa Cruz County, where one of the coast light-houses is
situated. It received its name from the day of its discovery.
_Arroyo Seco_ (dry creek). The Arroyo Seco, rising in the Santa Lucía
Range and flowing northeasterly into the Salinas River, is probably
the most remarkable example of terrace formation to be found among the
streams of the state.
There are other Arroyo Secos in the state, one near Los Ángeles which is
very striking in its color effects.
_Blanco_ (white), is a town in Monterey County which may have received
its name from Thomas B. Blanco, a pioneer and grantee of land in that
county.
_Cañada Segunda_ (second valley).
_Cerro del Venado_ (hill of the deer).
_Chualar_ is a village in Monterey County, in the Salinas valley,
128 miles southeast of San Francisco. The _chual_ is a wild plant of
California,—pig-weed or goose-foot, and _chualar_ is a spot abounding in
chual plants.
_Corral_ (yard, enclosed place). On October 11, 1769, the Portolá party
stopped at a place about a league from the Pájaro River, where they
constructed a fence between a lake and a low hill, in order to keep
the animals secure at night without the need of many watchmen. Palou,
in his _Life of Serra_, says: “The first expedition called this place
the _Corral_, on account of having built there, with some sticks nailed
together, a pasture in the manner of a yard, in order to keep the animals
safe at night. This was of great assistance, for there were so many sick
that there were not enough [people] to guard the animals.” In different
parts of the state there were many _Corrals_ and _Corralitos_ (little
yards). Sometimes the enclosing fence was made of stones, when more
convenient, and the enclosure was then called _Corral de Piedra_ (stone
corral); sometimes a barricade of earth was thrown up, and it was then
called _Corral de Tierra_ (earth corral). _Corral de Tierra_ is the name
of a well-known ranch near Monterey. In the days of old, many a joyous
_merienda_ (picnic) and barbecue was held at the Corral de Tierra Rancho.
_Corralitos_ (little corrals), is in Santa Cruz County, fourteen miles
east of Santa Cruz.
_Gabilán_, also spelled _Gavilán_ (hawk), is the name of the long
mountain ridge, a branch of the Coast Range, which extends through the
counties of San Matéo and Santa Cruz.
_Gonzales_ (a surname). This place is in Monterey County, in the Salinas
valley, seventeen miles southeast of Salinas.
_Gorda_ (fat, thick).
_Las Grullas_ (the cranes). In the diaries of the Portolá expedition,
date of October 7, 1769, we read: “We pitched our camp between some low
hills near a pond, where we saw a great number of cranes, the first we
had seen on this journey.” This was about four leagues from the Pájaro
River.
_Jolón_, a word of doubtful origin, which has been variously explained.
It is thought by some persons to be a corruption of Jalón, a proper name,
but old Spanish residents say it is an Indian word, meaning “valley of
dead oaks.”
_Llanada_ (a plain, level ground). This place is in San Benito County.
_Laureles_ (laurels). _Los Laureles_ is the name of a ranch near
Monterey. The wild laurel is a shrub common to many parts of the state.
_Lobos_ (wolves), generally used on this coast in the sense of _lobo
marino_, (sea-wolf, or seal). There is a _Punta de Lobos_ (seal point),
near Monterey which is noted for the bold grandeur of its ocean scenery,
as well as for its seals.
_Loma Prieta_ (dark hill), is the name of a peak in the Santa Cruz
Mountains.
_Moro Cojo_ (literally “lame Moor”), is the name of a well-known ranch in
Monterey County. The Spaniards were in the habit of using _moro_ to mean
anything black, and in this case, according to old residents, the ranch
was named for a lame black horse that ran wild there.
_Natividad_ (nativity of Christ), is the name of a town in Monterey
County, about one hundred miles southeast of San Francisco.
_Paicines_ is in San Benito County. This is a word of doubtful origin,
and many theories have been advanced to account for it. The most probable
is that given by an Indian woman, a resident of the place, who says it
was the name of an Indian tribe. The word is also sometimes spelled
_Pajines_. See _Tres Pinos_, page 98.
_Panocha_ is in San Benito County. This is a word applied to crude
sugar, or syrup, somewhat resembling sorghum. Probably modern.
_Paraíso Springs_ (paradise springs), is a health resort in Monterey
County.
_Pleito_ (quarrel, argument, lawsuit). This place is in Monterey County.
It has not been possible to ascertain the application of its name.
_Potrero_ (pasture). There were many _potreros_ scattered about the state.
_Puentes_ (bridges). This place, two leagues from the San Lorenzo River,
was reached by the Portolá, party October 18, 1769, and the reason for
its naming is explained by Miguel Costansó: “These canyons contained
running water in very deep ditches, over which it was necessary to lay
bridges of logs, covered with earth and bundles of sticks, so that the
pack animals could cross. The place was called _Las Puentes_.”
_San Benito_ (St. Benedict), was named in honor of the founder of the
great order of Benedictines. San Benito Creek was named in 1772 by Father
Crespi, and the name was eventually applied to the county. The town of
San Benito is on the Salinas River, sixty miles southeast of Monterey. It
is said of St. Benedict that he became a hermit at the age of fifteen
and fled to the wilderness, where he lived on bread and water. While
there he was tempted by the remembrance of a beautiful woman he had seen
in Rome, and to overcome his wish to see her again “he flung himself into
a thicket of briers and thorns, and rolled himself therein until he was
torn and bleeding. At the monastery of Subiaco they show roses, said to
have been propagated from these briers.”
_San Lucas_ (St. Luke), is in Monterey County, sixty miles southeast of
Salinas. St. Luke was the disciple of Paul, who speaks of him as “Luke,
the beloved physician,” but tradition reports him to have been an artist,
and that he always carried with him two portraits, one of the Saviour and
the other of Mary. Doubtless for this reason he is regarded as the patron
of artists and academies of art.
_Sur_ (south). Point Sur (south point), on the coast south of Monterey,
is a bold promontory where a light-house was placed by the government, in
consequence of the frequent occurrence of shipwrecks there. The Sur River
runs through a region remarkable for the wild picturesqueness of its
scenery, and for the strange tales told of happenings among its early
inhabitants.
_Toro_ (bull), is the name of a ranch near Monterey, said to have been
so-called after a wild bull.
_Tres Pinos_ (three pines), a place in San Benito County, one hundred
miles southeast of San Francisco. Postmaster Black, of Tres Pinos,
gives us the following history of the naming of this place: “The name
was originally applied to what is now known as _Paicines_, but when the
railroad came to this place they appropriated the name of Tres Pinos,
hence it has no significance as applied to this town. The name was given
the stopping-place now known as Paicines because of three pines alleged
to have grown on the banks of the Tres Pinos creek near that place.
Paicines, then Tres Pinos, was the scene of the Vásquez raid and murders
in the early ’70’s.”
_Uvas_ (grapes), the name of a town and creek in the Santa Cruz
Mountains, no doubt so-called from the abundance of wild grapes found in
that locality.
[Illustration: THE SANTA CLARA VALLEY]
VIII
THE SANTA CLARA VALLEY
_Santa Clara._ When the Spaniards passed through this valley, they were
not slow to recognize in it one of those favored spots on the earth’s
surface where climate and soil unite to produce the highest results. So
here they founded two missions, one at Santa Clara, and one at San José.
_Santa Clara_ (St. Clara), stands in one of the most fertile valleys in
California, which is equivalent to saying in the whole world, and is
about forty-six miles south-southeast of San Francisco. The mission was
founded by Padres Peña and Murguia, January 12, 1777. The buildings now
standing are mainly modern, but a small portion of the original structure
being incorporated in them. The ceiling over the sanctuary is original,
and a small part of the adobe buildings.
Clara de Asís, the sweet saint for whom this mission was named, was the
daughter of a nobleman. Her beauty and wealth brought her many offers
of marriage, all of which she refused, preferring to devote herself
to a religious life. She became the founder of the order of Franciscan
nuns, known as the “Poor Clares,” to which many noble ladies attached
themselves. The rules of the order were so strict that St. Clara’s health
finally became under-mined, and she died in an ecstatic trance, believing
herself called to Heaven by angelic voices. Her special symbol is the
lily, peculiarly appropriate for the patroness of the ever-blooming Santa
Clara Valley.
SAN JOSÉ
_San José_ (St. Joseph), enjoys the distinction of having been the first
white colony planted in the state by the Spaniards, although when we read
the complaints of the padres concerning the highly undesirable character
of its first settlers, recruited mainly from the criminal classes of
Sonora, the distinction would seem to be of rather a doubtful sort.
[Illustration: MISSION OF SANTA CLARA, FOUNDED IN 1777.
“The special symbol of the sweet St. Clara is the lily, peculiarly
appropriate for the ever-blooming Santa Clara Valley.”]
Spurred on by the old bogie of their fear of foreign invasion, the
Spanish government decided to establish colonies of white settlers,
believing that their hold upon the country would be rendered more secure
by this means. The pueblo of San José de Guadalupe, founded November
29, 1777, by Lieutenant José Moraga, then in command at San Francisco,
under orders from Governor Neve, was originally located on a site about
a mile and a quarter distant from the present city, but was removed in
1797, in consequence of the discovery that the low-lying ground of its
first location was often submerged during the winter rains. The people of
the pueblo were compelled to travel a distance of three miles to attend
mass at the Santa Clara Mission, and in order to make this journey more
agreeable, Father Maguín de Catala laid out the _alameda_ between the
two places, planting a fine avenue of willow trees which once comforted
the wayfarer with their grateful shade. The original trees have now
practically all disappeared and others have taken their places in part.
The old alameda has vanished.
Not until 1797 was the mission of San José founded, on a spot some
fourteen miles distant from the pueblo. The padres had no keen desire
to place the missions in close proximity to the pueblos, fearing the
evil influence on the Indians of a bad class of white men, besides
other inevitable complications, such as the mixing up of cattle. Father
Engelhardt, in his _History of the California Missions_, tells the story
of the founding of the Mission San José thus: “Here, on Trinity Sunday,
June 11, 1797, Father Lasuén raised and blessed the cross. In a shelter
of boughs he celebrated Holy Mass, and thus dedicated the mission in
honor of the foster-father of Christ, St. Joseph.”
The old church was unfortunately so shattered by an earthquake in 1868
that it was torn down and replaced by a wooden edifice.
It should be made clear that two missions were established here, Santa
Clara and San José, and that the latter was not at San José, as some maps
represent it, but some fourteen miles distant from the town.
PALO ALTO
_Palo Alto_ (high stick, or tree), in Santa Clara County, sixteen
miles northwest of San José, once a stock farm where blooded horses
were raised, now best known as the site of the Leland Stanford Junior
University, is said to have received its name from a tall redwood tree
on the _San Francisquito_ (little St. Francis) creek. This tree stands
just a few feet from the railroad bridge near Palo Alto station, and is
said by old residents to have originally been in the form of a twin tree,
one of the twins having been cut down. The trees of this species received
the name _Palo Colorado_ (red stick, or tree), from the Portolá party,
whose attention was attracted by their uncommon size and the peculiar
reddish color of the wood, and the honor of their discovery may justly be
awarded to Gaspar de Portolá, since he seems to have been the first white
man to make report of having seen them.