The river was used for hundreds of years by pre Columbian natives as a source of drinking water and food. When Spanish explorers came to the area in the 1760s, they named the river the Porciuncula, seeing that it was a good site for a settlement. The full name they gave the river was actually "El Río de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Ángeles de Porciúncula", which translated to English means: The River of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula. (Porciuncula is a small church in Italy.) But they were to soon find out, the Los Angeles River had, and still has, a long history of floods. Many times when the river flooded, it would change course from Ballona Creek, a stream flowing into Santa Monica Bay on the northeast; to its original channel flowing into San Pedro Bay. One big flood in 1825, it left Ballona Creek and flowed into its old channel, and Ballona Creek became a separate, long waterway. It still is that way today.