The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-01-15
Derivation of California.

IA SUBJECT Oh great interest In the history of ma
tons is the derivation of their Names and the cir
cnmstances which occasioned their nomenclature
The name of California seems to be involved in
oDscurity, yet with research into the records
oil the early times of European settlement upon this
continent, we think degree of light might be
thrown upon the subject. The first discoveries OF
California were, we believe, the Jesuit Mission
aries, who penetrated into that remote region with
In century of the discovery of the western world.
Those adventurous priests were frequently men of
learning and ability, and almost always recorded
their observations for the benefit of future nquirers
The works and letters of many of the first explorers
OF the western slope of continent are still extant
and pe-usa of these literary Antiquities frequent
ly affords amusement well as information Our
present remarks are only intended to refer to the
derivation of the name of that country whose
sands, and streams, and mountains, glitter with
exuberance of gold, and to which the imagina-
tons OF all the seekers after wealth are now d.
rected. La examining the works of the writers of
the 10th and 18th centuries we find that the CO.
temporary geographers of those times, had no other
name for our modern sc Dorado" than California
Mendoza, Alarcon the Jesuit, and others, in their
letters from the Missions, all call it California
The name is fanciful one yet recent events might
induce the belief that it given in true spirit
OF prophecy, though it may have been induced by
the same idea which prompted the early discoveries
TO baptize the gulf with the name of Ell Mar ber-
me]o,, the Red Sea. California is a Greek COM
pound meaning rich beautiful net fishing, from
kale and Phornia. The appropriateness of the
name will at once be discovered by perusal of
the letters of the Missionaries, who give glowing
accounts of the abundance of fish and pearls con-
tanned the waters, both fresh and salt, of Cali
formf The name has since the time of the
learned and pious fathers, undoubtedly been cor
rupted by the ignorant inhabitants Of Mexico
Laet in his Geography, Heylyn in his " Cosmogra-
phe," Ortelius in his " Orbs Pietus,' all agree
N calling the country by its original appellation
1t Is too remarkable fact that even as late as
l763 the of the world were not agreed as to
the geographical identity of California, viewed as
an island or a peninsula-many maintaining that
salutary skeptcism in regard to either hypothesis
which is said TO be the first step to wisdom. We
have before us very learned and curious work of
Rowland Jones on the unity of human language
and the primitive race, in which it is asserted that
the truth of certain specified propositions may be
ascertained so soon it may be definitivey settled
whether California sc be peninsula or an island"
AT the bottom of the page, on which the question
Is mooted, we find this grave note !: California
has been ascertained to be an island" If this
interesting country had retained the insular form
gwen 1t by the erpdite geographer, we doubt not
there would have been found host of modern
theorists rea3 to prove from good classical
authority that the ideal Atlantis which the fertile
Imagination of Plato described as existing in the
Western ocean was other than California ITSELF
Some may, perhaps still adopt the theory upon the
presumption that the mistaken idea of the form of
the country existing in the mind of Rowland Jones
might also have been maintained by Plato, who
assuredly had no better means of knowing the truth
than were in the possession of the more modern
geographer But whether our new Dorado be
called California or California, in the works of
geographers who so accurately describe lands they
never saw, the late treaty of peace between the
United States and Mexico, has made it California
Tor all time 10 come, fast as it can be made by
Executive negotiation, and senatorial ratification
We confess that we prefer California because it
means something, and if the Specification be net
fishing or fishing net, the Lord help the gudgeons
it may ensnare.