Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/21

Rh  is a form of "Orejon," (plural Orejones) meaning "big ears"—a term applied by the Spaniards to Indian tribes whose ears were enlarged by loads of ornaments.The poet, Joaquin Miller, who affectionately called Oregon the Emerald State, referred to the derivation of its name as "from the Spanish words 'aura agua,' meaning gently falling waters, a poetic reference to the rains for which the sea coast of Oregon is famed." "The Popular History of Oregon" tells us that "Oregon" is a form of the name "Aragon," which in Spain is pronounced very much like "Oregon," with the accent strongly on the last syllable as most Americans pronounced the word fifty years ago. In support of this theory it may be suggested that the name might have been given to the new country by Spanish missionaries as a mark of courtesy to Ferdinand of Aragon, Prince Consort of Isabella, who offered to pledge her jewels to make possible the voyage which resulted in the discovery of America.

Although "Oregon" probably came from one or more of these words, it could have other derivation. But while we are not certain as to its derivation we do know that it is a peculiar name introduced by Jonathan Carver and made famous in literature by the poet Bryant, in his poem, Thanatopsis; that it was applied to the river now called the Columbia, then to the entire region drained by that river, then restricted to the territory which later became the thirty-third state of the Union.