THE WEST SHORE.
62
ORIGIN OP "CALIFORNIA" AND " OREGON."
i BOUT the source from which sprung the names of
A the two grout Suites liordering on the Pacific Ocean
then? clings nn odor of mystery that renders a study of
the imltject peculiarly interesting. In cither case all that
is jtowtively known is the work in which it first appeared
in print, but lx'yond that all is mystery; and this per
plexing uncertainty has given rise to many theories, in
genious and otherwise, in regard to which it may be said
that while each jtossesses an element of possibility, more
pnxifH can le brought forward to disprove them than to
blister them up.
The word "California" was first printed in a romance
issue! in Neville in 1510, and entitled " The Sergas of
KHplandiaii, the Son of Aniadis of Gaul." This was three
years prior to tho discovery of the Pacific by Balboa, and
nt 11 time when it was tho universal belief that the great
continent which Columbus had discovered, and the
Cnbotrt, (Vrtcreal ami others had partially explored, was
tho Indies, or at least a great southeast and hitherto un
known extension of tho continent of Asia, about which
geographers then knew so little. Hero, perhaps, would
lie found the magnificent Cathay of Marco Polo and the
wonderful island of Cipango. Imagination peopled it
with nations of strange civilizations, tilled it with precious
metals and jewels in profusion, gave to it tho fabulous
Fountain of Youth, and invested it with every desirable
future that could lie conceived necessary to make of it
an earthly realization of Heaven, even to giving into its
keeping the Terrestrial Paradise from which the great
prngeuitora of mankind had been driven in disgrace
TW ideas were seized umn by the author of the
mumuoe and emMied in the "Sergas," and the result
was that his work Nvame immensely popular, and was
universally read in Spain for many years afterwards. In
this wonderful look occurs the following passage-
M. lT71I,r. ' ,,ro,"iW', in -"U. from it.
V of Siw. lhl he u .bout to undertake the conquest of
Mmta, on the South Sea, M the IWfc waH 2
kI Ut he had motion of "au island of Amazon
f' Wndin and gold, lv ng tTda
W n,m Colima." Ten year, later .iT
country miM ,;x though upon the
llnl cv4ot,v v V '7"L Here lr
:ez
and
said: "Cortez, that he might no longer be a spectator of
such miseries, went on further discoveries, and landed in
California, which is a bay." Here we find the first
specific application of the title, evidently to some port on
the peninsula visited by the great ConquioiUJor; and
gradually this name became associated with the entire
country claimed by Spain northwest of Mexico, as well as
the gulf lying between them. Still later, when more was
known of the coast, that portion lying east of the great
Colorado, and north of the mouth of the Gila River, was
designated as Alta California; and that is the land which
the United States conquered from Mexico in 1846, which
was invaded by a vast army of gold hunters in 1849, and
which in 1850 was admitted into the great sisterhood of
States under the name of California.
Many efforts have been made to trace the etymology
of the word, and some historians have advocated theories
far more ingenious than plausible. One of them advances
it as his opinion that the word is derived from the Latin
rutix fomax, which being translated into English becomes
" a hot f urnace," and that it was manufactured to order
by the priests who first planted the Cross of Christ upon
the burning sands of Lower California. That the title is
peculiarly appropriate, any one who has traversed the
wild wastes of sage brush and cactus beneath the scorch
ing rnys of a noonday sun will freely admit, but beyond
this it can have no support, since the name appeared in
the old romance in its entirety nearly two centuries be
fore the Jesuits invaded the peninsula. There is also an
unpleasant air of pedantry attached to it, which is of itself
n sufficient rensou for discarding it; names are seldom
manufactured in such a cold-blooded classical manner.
Another thinks that Calida fornalla may be considered
the origiual words from which the title was evolved; but
this, besides being like the other several centuries too
late, seems to depend simply upon the euphony of sound,
and resembles too closely the idea of the Irish immigrant,
who supposed that Oregou was named in honor of hia
great ancestors, the O'Regans. It has generally come to
be admitted that the word has no etymology, and that it
emanated solely from the brain of the romancer of
Seville.
Though a word of more modern manufacture, fully as
much mystery surrounds the origin of "Oregon" as we
have found to attend the birth of " California." The
theory most generally accepted is thus set forth by
Bishop Blanchet in a letter recently published in the
Orcgonian:
JtlfUtthan ('BUM. l .... . . . . . 1.1
. .,, jgp,,,,,, m u,, wm bj which rwad4 came im
el ,0T"10,, of Britain, after the peace, left Boston June 8, lit, crowd
" D,,nwt the Pacific, and returned October. 1768. In relation to hU
"., which ,,, vMifiiM in ,4 and bluhed j he i, the first who
make uiwur the w.ml"n , m .... .. i. .
-,,.. . , " "". xiie origin oi inat vara na nerer u
Bilho. f V COa,,,y Tbe fin,t r,,holio nnionarii-Father Demon, now
rri. i , r ,,unna. ther Blanchet, now Bishop of Oregon uij-
" V m Th0y twwW ,1,roah 5t for tTom "0Ulh
WW " ' Tisitin" M" numerous tribes ot Ore-
" H aHhlllirtnn T..--;. j ..... . V
imr.;., -- i auo urmn poase.iona. But in aU their tstiu
been diwrnTZi k i , I?. PP thnt what eoailX not 09 fon-,d in 0nm
trr CTiila. .hi b "op Blanchet in BoiiTia, when he risited Uiatoo
MEX,lmU,aim' "Oregon." in hi. opinion. f
Jih', T.in ,h 8Pul worforeja (ear), and came from the
wjaa uomara
ear), or it it probable that the Spaniard",