IN CALIFORNIA 79 



about these deserts, converting Indians while our 

 ancestors back East were fighting in the Revolu- 

 tionary War. He left some diaries, which are 

 among the beginnings of California literature. I 

 was reading in them not long ago, and the entry of 

 one March day in 1776 records his encountering in 

 an arroyo of the desert to the north of where we 

 are, some trees 'that grow the screw* que crian el 

 tornillo. I found that interesting because to this 

 day the Mexicans call the screw-pod mesquit, tor- 

 nillo or tornilla." 



Though it was now high noon and the desert was 

 a blaze of sunshine, the heat was tempered by a 

 pleasant breeze. We decided, therefore, to forego 

 a siesta and start on at once, changing our course 

 with a view to reach a little oasis of salt grass, 

 arrow-weed and Washingtonia or California fan- 

 palms, a favorite haunt of Eytel's, ten miles 

 straight north across the desert. There he was de- 

 sirous of painting, and I at the same time would have 

 a chance to see in their native wild some groves of 

 these beautiful palms which are now thoroughly 

 domesticated up and down California, as well as in 

 Southern Europe. Before setting forth, however, 

 we took a novel drink from a barrel cactus one of a 

 queer columnar sort of which there were several 

 about our stopping place, ranging in size from 



