of George M. aboard the ship. While waiting for approval of his San Diego River diversion plans, he had some time on his hands. He supplemented his low military pay by contributing humorous articles to the San Francisco Herald, California Pioneer magazine, and the fledgling local newspaper, the San Diego Herald. He wrote articles that poked fun at the figures and pretenses of high society. These articles were written to appear as if a running narrative from John Phoenix and were the state's first published humor. When another writer started writing articles with his pen name Squibob in a competing San Francisco newspaper, Derby wrote an article "killing off" Squibob and continued to write with a new penname, John Phoenix. In 1855, Derby bought the Herald, which went out of business in 1860. During this time he was promoted to first lieutenant. In 1857 Derby had amaurosis (today, some historians think he had a brain tumor), which prevented him from reading or writing. He requested leave from the Topographical Engineers in 1859 and moved to New York, where he died shortly after the start of the American Civil War. Derby was initially buried in his wife's family plot at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, but was reinterred at the West Point Cemetery on January 31, 1889. In honor of George Derby and his contribution to the lighter, more irreverent side of California history, the local chapter of the organization E Clampus Vitus is named in his honor, using his pseudonym John P. Squibob. Quotes One of our Fort Yuma men died, and unfortunately went to hell. He wasn't there one day before he telegraphed for his blankets. It rains incessantly twenty-six hours a day for seventeen months of the year [speaking of Oregon and Washington Territory] "Antidote for Fleas" (from Phoenixiana): Boil a quart of tar until it becomes quite thin. Remove the clothing, and before the tar becomes perfectly cool, with a broad flat brush, apply a thin, smooth coating to the entire surface of the body and limbs. While the tar remains soft the flea becomes entangled in its tenacious folds, and is rendered perfectly harmless; but it will soon form a hard, smooth coating, entirely impervious to his bite. Should the coating crack at the knee or elbow joints, it is merely necessary to retouch it slightly at those places. The whole coat should be removed every