108 PUECHASE OF CAMELS FOE MILITAEY PUEPOSES. 



transferred in finer order than when they came on board. I had been 

 told a great deal about the difficulty of transporting them, how they 

 were subject to a variety of intricate diseases, and how impossible it 

 would be to take them unless they were under the charge of the na- 

 tives of the countries where they were to be shipped from. No doubt 

 the camels in Barbary, Asia Minor, and Egypt are subject to diseases 

 of various kinds, owing to the ignorance and brutality of their 

 keepers, and I only wonder that they are fit for anything at all, after 

 passing through the hands of such people^ who, although their main 

 support frequently depends on this faithful beast, they treat it with 

 the greatest inhumanity ; and when it is sick are guilty of the grossest 

 folly in the application of remedies for its cure. 



My plan was to give them good food, and plenty of it; rub them 

 thoroughly every day with currycomb and brush ; keep every part of 

 their deck clean by scrubbing and whitewashing, and wash parts of 

 their bodies every day with soap and water ; under this simple treat- 

 ment I found the Tunisian camels improved greatly. Having been 

 provided with the best of food before leaving New York, (good oats 

 and hay,) I was enabled to supply them liberally, and although it is 

 entirely difterent from the food to which the camel is accustomed, they 

 thrive much better on it, and will eat nothing else when they once 

 get used to it. 



After leaving Tunis, and stopping a day at Malta, I proceeded to 

 Smyrna to enable Major Wayne to look at the camels there, and 

 having satisfied ourselves that they were good in quality and would 

 suit our purposes provided we could get no better, I sailed for Saloniki, 

 where I was told they had even finer camels than in Smyrna. I would 

 not recommend any one to go there in pursuit of camels, as there are 

 few to be found. The war in the East has drained that part of the 

 country of all its good animals_, and we left there without even seeing 

 a camel. , 



My next course was towards Constantinople, and we arrived there, 

 after some delay in the Dardanelles, on the fourth day of October. 



Your instructions to Major Wayne and myself were to proceed into 

 Persia for the purpose of looking at the dromedaries of that country, 

 &c. I presume that Major Wayne has informed you fully of the rea- 

 sons which prevented our doing so. It was thought to be impractica- 

 ble at that late season, and no more could be made in that direction, 

 if we both went, without abandoning the main object of the expedi- 

 tion. In the meantime, while inquiries were being made about the 

 possibility of getting to Persia, Major Wayne, Mr. Heap, and myself, 

 started for the Crimea to look at the camels there, particularly the 

 Bactrian camel, supposing, at the time, that it was the only place 

 where we would have an opportunity of seeing them, and not having 

 an idea then that we should be so fortunate as to procure two males 

 from Asia Minor. We saw buffew Bactrians in the Crimea, and those 

 were of an inferior quality, having been hardly treated, and left exposed 

 throughout the winter to get their living as best they could. They 

 were very little used — horsts, mules, and the Arabian camel being 

 preferred. The Bactrian is a very slow animal in its movements, 

 does not ofi'er the same facilities for loading, and would not suit at all 



