104 PUECHASE OF CAMELS FOE MILITAEY PUEPOSES. 



Many books have been written about their treatment and habits on 

 shoie; this report, then, will have the merit of novelty, if nothing 

 more, for I doubt if so many camels were ever placed together on 

 board ship, for so long a time, or ever performed so long a journey at 

 sea, the majority of them have been transported over seven thousand 

 miles, and one of them in particular, (a Tunisian camel,) has been 

 on board nine months without landing, has sailed over ten thousand 

 miles in that time, and has never been sick an hour since he came on 

 board. 



As my particular duty has been the transportation of the camels, 

 and the care of them while on board ship, I will confine myself as 

 much as possible to an account of their treatment and the means 

 adopted for their comfort. If the precautions I have taken are strictly 

 followed by persons who may hereafter undertake to import camels, I 

 do not think there will be any doubt of success, as they are the result 

 of careful wmtchfulness and tried experience. 



I arrived in " Spezzia " in thirty-eight days after leaving New 

 York, and finding that Major Wayne was just about leaving Paris to 

 join me, and would not likely arrive for some days, I concluded to 

 go to Florence and examine the camels of Tuscany, (as you expressed 

 some desire to be informed on the subject,) the original stock of which 

 was brought from Egypt and Barbary about two hundred years since, 

 and they have increased and multiplied to some hundreds. If the 

 number is limited, it is not because they do not breed as freely in 

 Tuscany as- in Egypt, but because the demand for them is small, the 

 grand duke only requiring a certain number for his own use, and not 

 permitting them to be bred by any one but himself. He has now on 

 hand a number sufficient to do the work of one thousand horses. On 

 my arrival at Florence I found that the cholera was raging violently, 

 and as most of the public functionaries had left the city, I could not, 

 without delay, obtain any documentary information relating to the 

 camels of Tuscany. I found, indeed, that the animals had all been 

 sent to Pisa to work on a farm belonging to the Grand duke, and I 

 immediately started for that place. I cannot say that I derived any 

 useful or important information from my visit, although I witnessed 

 the practical illustration of the fitness of the camel for a climate more 

 variable than the one to which it is intended to transport them in the 

 United States. I found the Pisa camels not in the best condition, 

 owing to their having been very much overlooked and badly cared 

 for, being supplied with no food whatever beyond what they could 

 glean from among the pine barrens, and not always being housed in 

 •winter, in latitude 43° 30'^ where they experience severe cold, and 

 encounter a much more trying climate than that of Texas ; besides 

 this, they were losing their hair at the time I saw them, which 

 renders the appearance of the camel anything but prepossessing. 

 The burdens they are made to carry are, I think, beyond their 

 strength, being equal to thirteen hundred English pounds, a weight 

 only put upon the strongest camels in Turkey, and for short distances. 

 The camels at Pisa work from sunrise till sunset, carrying this weight 

 with but few intervals of rest. Notwithstanding all the bad treat- 

 ment they are subjected to, and the little intelligence shown in the 



