river, which they named the Santa Rosa, in honor of that saint, whose
day it was. This is now the Santa Inez, so called from the mission of
that name, established on its bank in 1804. Passing northward along the
beach, a sharp spur of the sierra jutting out at Point Sal turned them
inland through the little pass followed by the Southern Pacific Coast
Line, and they came, on September 10th, to a large lake in the northwest
corner of Santa Barbara county, to which was given the name of Laguna
Larga, now known as Guadalupe Lake. Three leagues beyond, they camped at
a lake named by Costanso, Laguna Redonda, but which the soldiers called
El Oso Flaco - The Thin Bear - and it is still known by that name. Here
Sergeant Ortega was taken ill, and ten of the soldiers complained of
sore feet. They rested on the 3d, and on the 4th reached the mouth of
the San Luis canon. Here they were hospitably received by the chief of a
large rancheria, whose appearance caused the soldiers to apply to him
the name of "El Buchon," he having a large tumor hanging from his neck.
Father Crespi did not approve of the name which the soldiers applied to
the chief, his rancheria, and to the canon leading up to San Luis
Obispo, and he named the village San Ladislao. As in so many cases the
good father was unable to make the name he gave stick, the saint has
been ignored, but Point Buchon, just above Point Harford and Mount
Buchon, otherwise known as Bald Knob, bear witness to the staying
qualities of the tumor on the chief's neck. Passing up the narrow canon
of San Luis creek, they camped at or near the site of the mission and
city of San Luis Obispo. From here, instead of proceeding over the
Sierra de Santa Lucia by the Cuesta pass into the upper Salinas valley,
whence the march to Monterey would have been easy, they turned to the
west and followed the Canada de los Osos to the sea at Morro Bay, which
they called El Estero de San Serafin. The Canada de los Osos[23], still
so called, they named because of a fight with some very fierce bears,
one of which they succeeded in killing after it had received nine balls.