A piece of table land. Spanish.
1775. This table land is called Mesa Maria.—B. Romans, ‘Florida,’ p. lvii. Appendix. (N.E.D.)
1856. The high mesas … although from the want of sufficient rains unfit for cultivation, are by no means valueless.—‘Report of Explorations,’ p. 13 (Stanford Dict., 1892, Suppl.).
1869. Crossing an arroya, or dry bed of a creek, near the bottom of the mesa, and passing through some dense thickets of mesquit and ocochilla, the struggling family found themselves at the foot of a rocky bluff more difficult of ascent than any they had yet attempted.—J. Ross Browne, ‘Adventures in the Apache Country,’ p. 90.
