Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/598

 edited Lansford W. Hastings' Emigrants' Guide to Oregon, in the Princeton University Press reprint, 1932.

The general region in which the modern state of Oregon lies, was variously known, before discovery, by the now forgotten names, kingdom of Anian, kingdom of Quivera, and New Albion; and those countries, with cities and towns, lakes, rivers and capes, all bearing fictitious names, were shown on numerous maps published in various European countries, to the close of the American Revolution, although, as already indicated, a few map makers, less confident, marked the Oregon region simply as Terra Incognita.

The name Quivera, applied to both the kingdom of that name and to one of several mythical cities therein located, was obtained by Francisco Vasquez Coronado, a Spanish explorer, 1 540, from a story he had from the natives of the New Mexico region. A futile search for this wonderful kingdom, by Coronado, and by others from Mexico, led through the eastern part of the present New Mexico, rather than toward the coast, although the early maps placed Quivera in the Oregon region, above New Albion, or California. The original story supplied a detail about ships from the orient on this coast, bearing pelicans of silver and gold upon their prows, and told how the vessels had sailed 30 days to reach these shores, bearing cargoes of merchandise.

. . . These old stories and old maps relate to periods before actual discovery and exploration, but they have a real bearing upon the history of Oregon, for many of the fictions anticipated fact. Perhaps in no other part of the world has early myth so often foreshadowed actuality.

Thompson C. Elliott, a banker by profession and a historian during many years of spare time, has been a resident of Walla Walla continuously since 1886. He was born in Connecticut on September