110 PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOE MILITARY PURPOSES. 



ment had presented the United States, through our minister (Mr. 

 Spence), with four camels, that were to be of the best breed ; and as 

 orders had been sent into Asia Minor to procure them, he requested 

 me to remain in Constantinople eight or ten days longer to enable 

 the government to carry out its intentions. As this time could be 

 very profitably spent in examining the camels in Turkey in Europe, 

 and in and about Nicomedia, 1 acquiesced in the proposal to remain, 

 thinking there would be no delay. At the end of the ten days, the 

 camels not arriving, I called on the prime minister and inquired at 

 what time I might expect them. He assured me that they would soon 

 be in Constantinople, and issued new instructions to expedite the 

 matter. This brought the detention to ten days more, and I made 

 preparations to sail. In the meantime, Mr. Brown received authority 

 to order four of the finest camels to be found in European Turkey, and 

 accordingly went to work to get them. My reasons for not taking the 

 camels have been stated to you in a despatch from Constantinople, 

 which I presume you have received ; therefore it will not be necessary 

 to repeat them here. In his communication to me, Mr. Brown seems 

 to attach a great deal of importance to the transaction ; more than I 

 supposed it merited at the time. He also informed me that a report 

 of the matter had gone home to the government, and seemed to think 

 I might be censured for not keeping the ship there a longer time, 

 though I know he was aware of my desire to take the camels on 

 board, especially after he had gone to so much trouble to get them, 

 ^r. Brown may attach more importance to the matter than it de- 

 serves. I have written to him to say that the kind intentions of the 

 Turkish government can be carried out on some future occasion, if it 

 is the intention of our government to proceed with the experiment. 

 In these little matters of courtesy the Turkish authorities are very 

 tenacious, and I should be very sorry to place either our minister or 

 dragoman in a position where they might be called upon to make 

 awkward explanations, and I think both of those gentlemen will acquit 

 me of any responsibility in the matter. 



In anticipation of receiving the four camels from the Turkish gov- 

 ernment, I landed two of the Tunisians, the one we purchased and 

 .one of those (the smaller one) presented by "His Highness the Bey ;" 

 both these camels had the itch slightly, and I was anxious to get rid 

 of them for fear of innoculating those that were to come ; with the 

 one we purchased I had made every kind of experiment, and the 

 other was not exactly the class of camel to take so far as the United 

 States. It came on board sick, the Tunisians having injured it in 

 getting it into their boat, which was not at all adapted for shipping 

 camels. Both the above mentioned camels had been on board one 

 hundred and five days, and I felt perfectly satisfied that any we might 

 undertake to transport would stand the voyage to the United States, 

 provided they were sound at starting and we could have moderately 

 fair weather. They were exposed to two rough gales (one of which 

 lasted three days) and neither of them suffered in the least ; they both 

 grew fat under the lazy life they were leading, and improved so much 

 that I would have kept them but for their having the itch, which 

 is a trouhlesome complaint to cure, and it is one which all city camels 



