BOREGO SPRINGS TO LOS COYOTES 213 



Puerto Real de San Carlos. From it may be dis- 

 covered some very beautiful plains, green and flow- 

 ery, and the Sierra Nevada, with pines, oaks, and 

 other trees proper to cold countries. In it the waters 

 are divided, some running to the Gulf and others to 

 the Philippine Ocean." 



I do not know all parts of the routes in question 

 well enough to venture a decided opinion, but from 

 what I have seen I think the southerly is likely to 

 have been the one followed.^ Anyhow, it was pleas- 

 ant to think so, for in that case I was now on the old 

 Anza trail, and should follow the footsteps of that 

 picturesque company of padres, soldados, and arrie- 

 ros for a good few miles. On this understanding, my 

 Borego Springs was probably the aguaje (watering- 

 place) of good quality that Anza, or the padres, 

 named for San Gregorio, and where the party rested 

 for a day. He notes the fact of an Indian rancherla 

 (village), and there is evidence, in the shape of frag- 

 ments of pottery, that Borego Springs was long the 

 site of an Indian settlement: but that would be sure 

 to be the case where good water was to be found. ^ 



^ My Indian friend, Lee Arenas, tells me that the Cahuilla tribes, 

 inhabiting country adjacent to Coyote Canon, have a tradition that 

 the first white men came that way, and speak of a fight that took 

 place in the cafion with strangers using swords. Anza mentions no 

 such incident. His record of the natives hereabout is that they were 

 expert thieves, and could pick and steal with toes as cleverly as with 

 fingers: further, that they made much play with their legs and feet, 

 on which account he named them Danzantes (dancers). Lee also says 

 that the Indians call the head of the canon La Puerta, but this is the 

 common designation of any point in the nature of a pass. 



^ It was the rancheria of San Gregorio, by the by, that was thrown 

 into consternation, naturally enough, by the racket of the thirsty 

 mules of the approaching party. On the other hand, it is related of the 

 Cocopas that they were quite captivated by the mules of some 



