Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/433

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OREGON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES
367

it is also not far from Neahkahnie Mountain, and the records of Heceta are so meager as to make it impossible exactly to identify his discovery. Cape Falcon as we now know it derived its name from Heceta, irrespective of what point he originally discovered. The present application of the name was made by George Davidson of the U. S. Coast Survey in 1853, as being preferable to a name with the word "false" in it.

Cape Falcon has been the cause of considerable misunderstanding among students of Oregon history. Greenhow, in his History of Oregon and California appears to have started the trouble by confusing Cape Falcon, or as it was sometimes known, False Tillamook Head, with Clarks Point of View. This he does in two places, once in chapter IV and another time in appendix E. This error has been perpetuated by both great authorities on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Coues and Thwaites. As a result the latter has William Clark travel as far south as Nehalem Bay, when as a matter of fact Clarks Point of View was on Tillamook Head, and Clark only got as far as Elk Creek. See under Cannon Beach and Tillamook Head. Davidson clearly preceived this error. See Coast Pilot for 1869. However, Davidson was of the opinion that the Cape Grenville of Meares was the same as Cape Falcon, but this seems improbable to the compiler of these notes.

At the time of his discovery of Cape Falcon, Heceta also named La Mesa or The Table, putting it some 15 minutes of latitude further south than the cape, with no indication as to whether it was an inland mountain or not. It seems to the compiler that Le Mesa must have been what is now known as Cape Meares, or some flattopped mountain inland.

Cape Ferrelo, Curry County. Bartolome Ferrelo was a pilot in the expedition of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portugese, who sailed from Mexico in June, 1542, for