Mr.Ralston and Mr.Horton helped many to pay their passage, but not one person was ever heard of again, not one cent was returned, not even one word of gratitude or good intentions.
Up to the period which is known as the boom of 1870-71, the history of San Diego was so interwoven and closely connected with the life of Mr.
Horton that the story of one is inseparable from that of the other.
When Mr.Horton came from San Francisco to see the wonderful harbor described by friends, there was nothing there but two old buildings, the barren hillsides, and the sheep pastures.
His gifts to the city and to individuals amount to a present valuation of over a million of dollars.

Of the nine hundred acres of land which he originally bought (a part of the Mexican grant) at twenty-seven cents an acre, he owns but little.
But it is to his common sense, foresight, and business ability that the present city owes much of its success; and it is interesting to hear him tell of exciting adventures in "Poker Flat," and other places which Bret Harte has worked up so successfully.
Lieut.

George H.Derby is amusingly associated with "Old Town," the former San Diego, three miles from the present city.

He had offended Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, by his irreverent wit, and was punished by exile to this then almost unknown region, which he called "Sandy Ague," chiefly inhabited by the flea, the horned toad, and the rattlesnake.

Mr.Ames, of the _Herald_, a democratic paper, asked Derby, a stanch whig, to occupy the editorial chair during a brief absence.