PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 99 



fully, either in regard to them, or to the suggestion conveyed to me 

 by General Jesup of again visiting the east. 



With much respect, I am, sir, (in haste for the mail,) your obedient 

 servant, 



HENRY C. WAYNE, 

 Major United States Army. 

 Hon. Jeffeeson Davis, 



Secretary of War, Washington, 



P. S. I have requested Colonel Tompkins to telegraph to you my 

 arrival here. H. C. W. 



Indianola, Texas, 31ay 17, 1856. 



General : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 

 letter of the 22d ultimo, in which you inform me that the Secretary 

 of the Navy has stated that it will be in his power to send the 

 " Supply " again to the Mediterranean, and wishing to be informed 

 whether, in the event of the vessel being sent back, I desire to con- 

 tinue on the duty on which I am engaged, and to go again to the 

 Mediterranean. 



Appreciating the kindness that makes a return to the Mediterranean 

 optional with myself, I will frankly say, that I prefer to continue- 

 with the camels already landed, and to carry out the remaining points 

 of the experiment yet to be demonstrated, viz : acclimation and breed- 

 ing. In thus stating my own wishes, I beg, however, to be under- 

 stood as doing so with submission to the judgment of the Secretary of 

 War and of yourself, and as being in readiness to return to the East, 

 should my services be considered more necessary there than here. 



The object of this second expedition I suppose to be simply to in- 

 crease the number of the animals in the United States, and to do so 

 as speedily as possible ; which can be accomplished by sending some 

 one who has a knowledge of animals in the vessel to Smyrna, or 

 other points determined upon, to purchase them ; or better by send- 

 ing him ahead of the vessel to the given point, that his purchases, 

 may be ready for shipment upon her arrival at it. In twenty-three- 

 days from New York an agent can be in the Levant, and in five, six. 

 months, at furthest, from the present time, with proper energy and ex- 

 pedition, thirty or forty more camels can be landed upon our shores. 

 Meanwhile, I can be determining the place for conducting the processes 

 of acclimation and breeding and for testing their usefulness. 



I should be loth to leave the camels already imported in the charge 

 of persons unacquainted with details of their habits and management, 

 and who have not systematised a plan for their employment, which 

 would fulfill early the national purposes that induced their importa- 

 tion. • 



Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



HENRY C. WAYNE, 

 U. S. Army, Brevet Major, Acting Quartermaster. 



Major General Thomas S. Jesup, 



tl. S. Army, Quartermaster General, Washington, D. C. 



