Читать книгу Spanish and Indian place names of California - Nellie van de Grift Sanchez - Страница 11

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.