  This paper presents chemical abundance measurements for 12 new z>3 damped Lya
systems discovered toward five quasars from the Palomar Sky Survey. We
determine HI column densities from profile fits to the observed damped Lya
profiles and measure ionic column densities and limits for all observed
metal-line transitions. This dataset, acquired with the Echellette Spectrograph
and Imager on the KeckII telescope, adds to the rapidly growing database of
damped Lya abundances. It will impact studies of chemical evolution in the
early universe and help identify candidates for detailed follow-up observations
with echelle spectrographs. We report the discovery of the first quasar
sightline with four cosmologically distinct damped Lya systems.
