430 RESOURCES OP CALIFORNIA. 



River, the Mission San Gabriel, etc. Though the plural form 

 of Calaveras and Salinas has been preserved, the singular has 

 been adopted for Pajaro River, Alcatraz Island, and Coyote 

 Creek. Pajaro River was so named because of the great 

 number of wild geese and ducks which were formerly seen 

 in its' valley. Bodega was named after a Spanish navi- 

 gator on this Coast; Cape Mendocino after the noble pat- 

 ron of another. * Amador County and Amador Valley were 

 named after Jose* M. Amador, who was manager of the prop- 

 erty of the Mission of San Jose", about 1835. He lived in Am- 

 ador Valley, and in 1848 he went with a number of Indians to 

 mine in what is now Amador County. Vallejo, Pacheco, 

 Martinez, and Alvarado, are the names of prominent men 

 among the Spanish Californians. Some Spanish names have 

 been changed into English. The American River was formerly 

 called el Rio de los Americanos, because the Americans enter- 

 ing California usually came down the banks of that stream. 

 The Feather River was called el Rio de las Plumas, the river 

 of feathers. The " Plumas," after having been abandoned as 

 a designation for the river, was given to the county in which 

 it takes its rise. Angel Island was 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 first called 

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

 Vallejo, on whose land the town was to be built ; but in Janu- 

 ary, 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. Vallejo. The town 

 of Sonora was so named because the majority of the first 

 miners there were from Sonora. The New Almaden quicksil- 

 ver mine, for some months after the nature of the ore was 

 discovered, was called la Mina de Santa Clara. Its present 

 name was derived from the great quicksilver mine oi Alma- 

 den, in old Spain. 



