Chapter II: Part 2

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.

“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.”

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.”

“ ... 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.

“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.

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.”

“ ... 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.