PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 113 



or under officer, who went to work to make a handsome profit out o^ 

 the business. After more than a week's delay, and many inquiries 

 on my part as to when we might expect them, I was at last informed 

 that the dromedaries were ready to be delivered over to any one 

 T might send for them. I sent an officer to receive them, who re- 

 turned in a few minutes and informed me that the animals were so 

 wretched in appearance, and so rotten with disease, that he would not 

 take the responsibility of accepting them without further orders. 

 To avoid all mistakes, I went and inspected them myself, and found 

 them infinitely worse than they had been represented ; they were not 

 dromedaries at all, but the common street camel of Alexandria, the 

 most ill used and wretched looking beast in the world. What made 

 the matter worse, two of them had been purchased by Major Wayne, 

 in Cairo, and rejected, on their arrival in Alexandria, because they 

 turned out to be diseased, and they were about the best of the lot 

 presented. 



The whole affair, at first, looked like a studied insult, for the purpose 

 of turning the expedition into ridicule. I promptly refused to receive 

 the present^ and the accompanying correspondence took j)lace, which 

 will explain the whole affair to you. 



I felt that there was some improper course pursued by the subordi- 

 nates of the pacha, and I thought it my duty to expose it. Mr. 

 De Leon approved of my course, and warmly seconded my remon- 

 strances. These letters will tend to show how many impediments 

 are thrown in the way of strangers in the prosecution of any purpose in 

 Egypt. The well intended liberality of his highness the viceroy is 

 often turned aside by his subordinates, who thereby reap some small 

 advantage themselves, at the risk even of meeting with severe punish- 

 ment. This piece of trickery caused another delay of a week ; but 

 when it was brought to the notice of his highness the viceroy, he put 

 the matter in proper hands, and in seven days a fair lot of drome- 

 daries were brought down from the interior, and six were selected out 

 of fifteen, two males and four females. 



The dromedaries presented by his highness were not such as I 

 would have bought ; they are not the far-famed and swift drome- 

 daries of the desert, but the ordinary ^' Mount Sinai breed" used in 

 the transportation of goods and passengers across the Isthmus of 

 Suez, and for two or three days' journey about the country they are 

 good strong animals, and will make their fifty miles a day for seven 

 or eight days in succession, perhaps longer. We had no opportunity 

 of trying their paces, and had to trust to luck about their being in a 

 sound healthy condition ; fortunately they proved to be fine animals, 

 and stood the transportation better, if anything, than the burden 

 camels of Asia Minor. The viceroy expressed great doubt about our 

 ever reaching America with any of them alive, much less in good, 

 condition, as he said it had been found they would not stand a sea 

 voyage. It appears that he was mistaken. If it is the intention of 

 government to import any more dromedaries from Egypt, it will be 

 necessary to make some arrangements through our consul general, 

 Mr, De Leon, so that he may obtain concessions from the viceroy. 

 To avoid having all his fine stock of horses and other oattle sent out 



Ex. Doc. 62 8 



