The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951 Page: 252

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

flags and that they should undertake a flight and drop flowers
upon the dead of both belligerent armies."
MADALINE W. NICHOLS
University of New Mexico
The Royal Highway. By Edwin Corle. Indianapolis (Bobbs-Mer-
rill), 1949. Pp. 351. Illustrations. $4.00.
The shelves of news stands and bookstores of California groan
under the load of guide books designed for tourist consumption,
but no other has the charm and interest of Corle's The Royal
Highway, a Bobbs-Merrill book published in 1949. This book is
the history of El Camino Real (U. S. Highway io) from about
1510, the date of the publication of Montalvo's Las Sergas de
Esplanadian (a description of the land called California) to the
turn of the twentieth century.
The story of the King's Highway has its beginning with the
discovery of California by Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542 (or was it
Hernando de Alarcon in 1540?), and includes many events not
directly connected with El Camino Real, illustrative of these
being a history of the half-hearted Spanish military occupation,
the mission era, the Hidalgo Revolution, the Mexican War,
American infiltration, the gold rush, and the beginning of Cali-
fornia statehood.
This history of California differs from its predecessors largely
in the manner of its telling and in the interpretation of certain
historical events. There is little that is new in the book with now
and then a new episode included, or some new interesting details
about an episode oft-retold. Some of these interesting details
seem so incredible as to lead one to wonder if the author is not
entertaining himself at the reader's expense by seeing how far he
may venture and still have his story seem tenable and keep the
reader's confidence. Chief among these flippant stories is that of
the Battle of Cahuenga Pass (pp. 166ff). U. S. Highway xo1
(El Camino Real) as well as the double tracks of Pacific Electric
Railroad funnel through this pass today.
Each writer has the privilege of interpreting historical events
as he sees them provided, always, that sufficient evidence is given
to lend reasonable support to his interpretation. In this category

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