ELDORADO 195 



"In the island called California are man)- griffins on 

 acconnt of the great savageness of the country and 

 the immense quantity of wild game to he found there." 



As the name originated, however-^before civilized 

 man had beheld the land, before Cortez had invaded 

 Mexico, Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean, or Mag- 

 ellan first navigated its waters, it is supposed that the 

 r.ame California originated in the brain of the novelist 

 mentioned above. Centuries before the discovery of 

 the American continent and while the early navigators 

 of Europe made slow and tedious voyages to the 

 Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, the stories of the dis- 

 coveries of distant lands and strange people consti- 

 tuted much of the romantic and fabulous tales related 

 about the "Terrestrial Paradise," and the "Land of 

 Gold," their marvelous wonders and strange peoples. 

 The Spanish novelist already quoted, assured his read- 

 ers that the imaginary animal, the griffin — half lion 

 and half eagle — which Avas supposed to watch over 

 mines of gold and hidden treasure had its abode in 

 California. To shoAv the absurdities of these earlv 

 times and the notions of the people respecting this 

 then unexplored land, the following extracts are given 

 from the records of some of the earlv-explorers of the 

 South Pacific, who had worked up their imaginations 

 respecting the fabled Land of Gold. One writer, de- 

 scribing the dangers of the seas, savs : "The crew 

 and passengers consume their provisions and then die 

 miserablv. Manv vessels have been lost in this wav ; 

 but the people have learned to save themselves 

 from this fate bv the following contrivance: thev tal-e 

 bullocks' hides along with them, and whenever this 

 storm rises thev sew themselves up in the hides, tak 



