Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/482

ing in the records of the Spanish navigators, nothing in the history of Spanish exploration or discovery, that indicates, even in the faintest way, that this was the origin of the name, or that the Spaniards called this country, or any part of it, by that name. There is marjoram here, indeed; and at a long time after the Spaniards had discontinued their northern coast voyages, it was suggested that the presence of marjoram (oregano) here had led the Spaniards to call the country Oregon. From the year 1535 the Spaniards, from Mexico, made frequent voy. ages of exploration along the Pacific Coast toward the north. The main object was the discovery of a passage connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Consequently, the explorers paid little attention to the country itself. After a time, finding the effort to discover a passage fruitless, they desisted for a long period. But, after the lapse of two centuries, they began settlements on the coast of California; and then voyages toward the north were resumed by some of their navigators. In 1775 the mouth of the Columbia River was seen by Heceta, but, owing to the force of the current, he was unable to enter. The fact here to be noted is that the Spaniards of that day did not call the country Oregon, or, if they did, they have left no record of it. Others have professed or proposed to derive the name Oregon from the Spanish word oreja (the ear), supposing that the Spaniards noted the big ears of the native Indians and named the country from the circumstance. But the Spaniards themselves have left no record of the kind; nor has it been noted, so far as we are aware, that the ears of our Indians were remarkably large. The word orejon is nearer our form; it signifies 'slice of dried apple,' we may suppose, from its resemblance to the form of the ear. Many years ago Archbishop F. N. Blanchet, of Oregon, while in Peru, noted a peculiar use of the word orejon in that country, which he ingeniously conjectured might throw some light on the origin of the name Oregon. We believe it probable that the name Oregon arose out of some circumstances connected with western explorations of the French. Earlier than the English the French had pressed on westward from the Great Lakes to the Red River, to the Saskatchewan and to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. They were ranging the country of the upper Mississippi in search of furs and for trade with the natives; they were full of curiosity and active in inquiry about the great distant West and the unknown western sea. Of this sea they possessed Spanish charts and perhaps used among the natives the word Aragon as a homonym of Spain. When Jonathan Carver, of Connecticut was on his expedition to the upper Mississippi country, in 1767-68, he made all possible inquiries, he tells us, about the country toward the west, the western river, and the sea and the word Oregon. Recent writers have shown that much of Carver's book is made up of unacknowledged extracts from French explorers before him, particularly from Hennepin, Lahontan and Charlevoix; and, as Carver had no scholarship, it is believed the book was compiled in London, partly from Carver's own story and partly from the records of French and English exploration." It seems clear to the compiler that the name Oregon originated in the Mississippi Valley, and not on the Pacific Coast, for as far as known, there is not a line about early Pacific Coast explorations that contains the word. The name might have originated in the Mississippi Valley from one of the three sources, French, Indian or Spanish. T. C. Elliott, in the OHQ, mentioned in the first paragraph under this heading, associ ter as