198 PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 



from Captain Palmer and Assistant Surgeon Jos. R. Smith, copies of 

 which are enclosed,) I think we may regard the acclimation of the 

 camel as decided, and that it will flourish with us as well as it does 

 in Asia or Africa. In my own mind I have no doubt of the complete 

 success of the experiment, under good management for the future : 

 but as we cannot expect the public to adopt our conclusions as facts, 

 the remaining points of breeding, and the character of the stock bred, 

 must be demonstrated practically, with as much care as if we had not 

 such good reasons to anticipate their favorable issue. 



So far the results of the experiment, within the limits time has per- 

 mitted it to be carried, have fully sustained the views that we enter- 

 tained in regard to the usefulness of the camel, and which induced us, 

 in our respective spheres of action, to press it upon the attention of 

 Congress. In conducting the experiment, I have endeavored to act 

 with great caution, and rather to err on the side of excessive care 

 than to jeopard success by any effort at display. I know what the 

 animal is capable of doings and does in Asia and Africa, and I am 

 firmly convinced that it can do as much in America. But there is a 

 large portion of the community always opposed to what they call 

 " novelties," and ever ready to seize upon any want of success in any 

 of them essayed, to maintain their own reputation for sagacity ; and 

 another class who, though they may wish well, are timidly doubtful; 

 and still another class, whose misgivings are founded in reason. The 

 prejudices, fears and objections of all these classes, are to be met only 

 by successful demonstration ; and to attain this in our experiment, I 

 have treated the camels with perhaps more care than their naturally 

 hardy constitutions really required. We have camels that, for short 

 distances, will easily trans j)ort twelve and fifteen hundred pounds ; 

 yet never, but in one instance, has there been put upon them more 

 than about six hundred pounds. The exception referred to was dur- 

 ing my stay in Indianola, and within the first month or six weeks 

 after landing. Needing hay at the camel yard, I directed one of the 

 men to take a camel to the quartermaster's forage-house, and bring 

 up four bales. Desirous of seeing what efiect it would produce upon 

 the public mind, I mingled in the crowd that gathered around the 

 camel as it came in town. When made to kneel down to receive its 

 load, and two bales, weighing in all 613 pounds, were packed on, I 

 heard doubts expressed around me as to the animal's ability to rise 

 under them ; when two more bales were put on, making the gross 

 weight of the load 1,256 pounds, incredulity as to his ability to rise, 

 much less to carry it, found vent in positive assertion, and as I had 

 then become recognized, I observed that I was regarded by some com- 

 passionate individuals as about to make a splendid failure ; to convey 

 to you the surprise and sudden change of sentiment when the camel, 

 at the signal, rose and walked off with his four bales of hay, would be 

 impossible. It is sufficient to say that I was completely satisfied. 

 The circumstance was chronicled in verse by one of the poets of Texas, 

 and published in the Indianola Bulletin or Victoria Advocate, I forget 

 which, and in it was amusingly described the incredulity and sur- 

 prise^ almost dismay, I have endeavored to portray. I am sorry I 

 have not the verses by me to enclose them to you. I would have put 



