Daily Alta California, Volume 1, Number 103, 29 April 1850
REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE
On the Derivation and Definition
of the Names of the several Counties
of the State of California, &c.
MARIN — This is the name of the great chief of the tribe Licatiut, and the other tributaries that inhabited this county and that of Sonoma. In Spanish ‘Licatiut” signifies “Arauzon,” a favorite root or vegetable of these Indians, of which they laid in plentiful supplies to be used on great festival occasions. It affords them nourishment in great abundance in the valley of “Petaluma” their usual encampment.
In the year 1815 or 1816 a military expedition proceeded to explore the country north of the bay of San Francisco and on returning by the Petaluma valley an engagement ensued with Marin, in which he was made prisoner and conducted to the station of San Francisco, from which he escaped and again reached Petaluma; he united his scattered forces and thenceforward dedicated his most strenuous efforts to harrass the troops in their hostile incursions in that part of the country.
He carried on hostilities until he was so closely pursued as to be compelled to take refuge in the Marin isles, situate at the mouth of the inlet San Rafael, and so named from this circumstance. He there defended himself for some time, but was again taken captive to San Francisco in 1821 ; whence being set at liberty, he retired to the mission of San Rafael, and there died in 1834.