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.
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.”
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.”
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.