TOPOGRAPHICAL NAMES. 425 



Indians to mine in what is now Amador county. Yallejo, Pa- 

 cbeco, Martinez, and Alvarado, are the names of prominent 

 men among the Spanish Californians. Some Spanish names 

 have been changed into Enghsh. The American River was 

 formerly called el Rio de los America9ios, because the Ameri- 

 cans entering California usually came down the banks of that 

 stream. The Feather River was called el Bio de las Plumas, 

 the river of feathers. The "Plumas," after having been aban- 

 doned as a designation for the river, was given to the county 

 in which the river takes its rise. The Yuba River was called 

 by the Spaniards, el Bio de las ITvas (the river of the grapes). 

 The ignorant Spaniards wrote the main word JJhas^ the h and 

 V being often confounded in the Castilian tongue. The Ameri- 

 cans gave the English pronunciation to the initial u, then wrote 

 it " Yubas," as they pronounced it, and finally changed it to 

 the singular. Angel Island was formerly called la Isla de los 

 Angeles, and Mare Island was called la Isla de las Yeguas. The 

 town of Benicia was laid off in 1846, and was lu'st called 

 " Francesca," one of the Christian names of the wife of M. G. 

 Yallejo, on whose land the town was to be built ; but in March, 

 1847, the name of the town of, Yerba Buena was changed to San 

 Francisco, and the projector of Benicia, Mr. Charles D. Semple, 

 thought it necessary, for the purpose of avoiding confusion, to 

 change the name of his city on paper, so he adopted "Benicia," 

 another name of Mrs. Yallejo. The town of Sonora was so 

 named because the majority of the first miners there were from 

 Sonora. The New Almaden quicksilver mine, for some months 

 after the nature of the ore was discovered, was called la 3Ji7ia 

 de /Santa Clara. Its present name was derived from the great 

 quicksilver mine of Almaden, in old Spain. The Enriqueta 

 quicksilver mine was named after Enriqueta (Henrietta) Llnv- 

 rencel, the daughter of the managing owner of the rancho at 

 the time the mine was discovered. 



§ 302. Indian Names. — The Indian names in California are 

 numerous. Among them are Siskiyou, Klamath, Shasta, Te- 

 hama, Colusa, Yolo, Napa, Sonoma, Mokelumne, Tuolumne. 



