A terrible
journey indeed; but if any State in the Union could be fair enough,
fertile enough, and rich enough to repay such a lavish expenditure of
energy and suffering, California certainly was and is the one. Now
who can tell us something of the name "California"? You, Geoffrey?'
'Geoffrey has crammed!' exclaimed Bell, maliciously. 'I believe he's
been reading up all day and told papa what question to ask him!'
'I'll pass it on to you if you like,' laughed Geoffrey.
'No--you'd never get another that you could answer! Go on!'
'In 1534, one Hernando de Grijalva was sent by Hernando Cortez to
discover something or other, and it was probably he who then saw the
peninsula of California; but a quarter of a century before this a
romance called Esplandian had appeared in Spain, narrating the
adventures of an Amazonian queen who brought allies from "the right
hand of the Indies" to assist the infidels in their attack upon
Constantinople--by the way I forgot to say that she was a pagan.
This queen of the Amazons was called Calafia, and her kingdom, rich
in gold and precious stones, was named California. The writer of the
romance derived this name, perhaps, from Calif, a successor of
Mohammed. He says: "Know that on the right hand of the Indies there
is an island named California, very close to the Terrestial Paradise,
and it was peopled by black women without any man among them, for
they lived in the fashion of the Amazonia.
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