After my interview with Mr. Hutchings--for I had never heard the word Yo-Hamite until it was published by him--I asked John Hunt, the Indian trader referred to, where he had got the word furnished to Mr. Hutchings. John, with some embarrassment, said, that “Yo-Hem-i-te was the way his Indians pronounced the name.” I asked what name? “Why, Yosemite,” said John. But, I replied, you know that the Indian name for the valley is Ah-wah-ne! and the name given by us was the name of Ten-ie-ya’s band? “Of course, (said John,) but my Indians now apply the word Yo-Hemite to the valley or the territory adjacent, though their name for a bear is Osoomity.” John Hunt’s squaw was called, and asked by him the meaning of the word, but confessed her ignorance. Mr. Cunningham was also consulted, but could give us no certain information; but surmised that the word had been derived from “Le-Hamite ‘The Arrowwood.’” Another said possibly from “Hem-nock,” the Kah-we-ah word for God. As to Yo-Amite, insisted on by Doctor Scott, I made no effort to find an interpretation of it. CHAPTER V. Date of Discovery--First White Visitors--Captain Joe Walker’s Statement--Ten-ie-ya’s Cunning--Indian Tradition--A lying Guide--The Ancient Squaw--Destroying Indian Stores--Sweat-houses--The Mourner’s Toilet--Sentiment and Reality--Return to Head-quarters. The date of our discovery and entrance into the Yosemite was about the 21st of March, 1851. We were afterward assured by Ten-ie-ya and others of his band, that this was the first visit ever made to this valley by white men. Ten-ie-ya said that a small party of white men once crossed the mountains on the North side, but were so guided as not to see it; Appleton’s and the People’s Encyclopedias to the contrary notwithstanding.[10] It was to prevent the recurrence of such an event, that Ten-ie-ya had consented to go to the commissioner’s camp and make peace, intending to return to his mountain home as soon as the excitement from the recent outbreak subsided. The entrance to the Valley had ever been carefully guarded by the old chief, and the people of his band. As a part of its traditionary history, it was stated: “That when Ten-ie-ya left the tribe of his mother and went to live in Ah-wah-ne, he was accompanied by a very old Ah-wah-ne-chee, who had been the great ‘medicine man’ of his tribe.”