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.”