INTRODUCTION 15 



fact, so directly opposed to all preconceived opinions, 

 should certainly receive a world-wide circulation, being 

 far too valuable to be confined exclusively to the limited 

 tract known as Nevada. 



About the same time (1860) twenty-four camels importa- 

 were taken over from India to Australia for Burke's Australia 

 and Wills' exploration, and a little later on Warburton 

 crossed the great Central Desert with a caravan. Since 

 1884, when the Australian Contingent was at Suakim, a 

 wider experience has been gained, which has given a 

 fresh impetus to their employment an impetus which 

 came just in time to restore the interest in them 

 which had begun to flag and droop ; and the move- 

 ment seems to be meeting with general success, the 

 number on the continent having now increased to over 

 2,000. 



Napoleon the Great was the first general of modern Napo- 

 tim.es who made use of a camel corps. Where he got camel 

 the idea whether he borrowed it from the Persians at corps 

 Sardis ; or during his Italian campaign (1796-97) he 

 came across the camel at Pisa and made a mental note 

 of it ; or whether, again, it was a flash of genius which 

 revealed it to him, and he saw with one of those light- 

 ning glances so marked a feature of his when he 

 found himself in the Egyptian desert in 1798, the 

 undoubted utility of the animal for military purposes, 

 is not, so far as I am aware, generally known. At all 

 events, to him is due the credit of reviving an ancient 

 custom, and applying, but modifying it to suit modern 

 usages, in accordance with the marked changes in the 

 science of ancient and modern warfare through the in- 

 creased development and advancement of intelligence 



