Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-07-12
SHIP OF THE DESERT.
Revival Of the Arabian Camel Story
tor the Arid Plains.
Beast OF

The story of the experiment made
nearly fifty years ago to utilize the
Arabian camel as a beast of burden
on the arid plains of Arizona, New
Mexico and the desert plains of Colo
RADIO. is one of the many interesting
chapters in the history of the south
west. The originator and chief pro-
moter Of the project was Jefferson
Davis. During the last days of the
session of congress in 1851, when the
army appropriation bill was under con-
sideration. Mr.. Davis, then senator
from Mississippi, offered a bill provid-
ing for the purchase and introduction
OF thirty camels and twenty dromedar-
les with ten Arab drivers and the nec-
essary %equippage.
In December, 1854, Major C. Wayne
was sent to Egypt and Arabia to buy
se~venty-five camels. He bought the
first lot in Cairo and taking these in
the naval store ship Supply he sailed
to Smyrna, where thirty more of an
other kind were bought. These a
been Used on the Arabian deserts.
They cost from SIS to $500 each, some
what more than had been paid Ior the
Egyptian lot. The ship Supply, with
its load of camels. reached l~ndianola,
| ltAdS. Ol nv Huil " NICalScs 4 ~ -
10, 1857. Three had died during the
voyage. leaving seventy-two in the
herd. At first the mild submissiveness
of the camels provoked the drivers.
They could appreciate the vigorous
kicking of an army mule in its protest
against abuse, but the spiritless dejec-
ton and the mild-eyed ~pensiveness of
the Arabian burden-bearer was exa
perating. They soon learned that in
pure one lone camel could
discount a whole herd OF mules.
The camel could travel sixteen miles
an hour, which was a virtue, but when
camp was struck in the evening and it
was turned loose to SUI off the succu.
lent sage brush, either to escape the
noise ana profanity of the camp or to
view the country, the beast was al
ways seized with a desire to take a
tramp of twenty-five or thirty miles
before supper. While this only took
an hour or two of time, it involved
upon an unfortunate driver the neces'
sity of spending half the night in
camel chasing, for if it was not round
ed up there was a delay of half the
next day in starting the caravan. The
animal could carry a tOn-thiS was a
c~ommendable virtue-but when toe
heavily loaded the ships of the desert
collided on a narrow trail, as they al
ways did when an opportunity Offered
and tons of supplies were scattered
over miles of plain. AS the unfortu
nate camel pilots had to gather up the
fiotsam of the wreck, it is not strange
that the mariners of the arid wastes
mathematical the whole camel race
from the beast the prophet rode dowr
to the smallest imp of Jefferson Davis
importation.
Whenever one of the h~ump-backet
burden bearers of the Orient came
trotting along past a corral of horses
I. and lifted its voice in al evening orr
: son to Mohammed or some other Turl
every horse of the caballada was seiZ
, ed with fright and broke loose ant
: stampeded. At the breaking out of thu
: civil val some ~thirty-five or forty o
? the camel band were herded at tn,
: United States forts-Verde, El Paso
= Yuma and some of the smaller post
, in Texas. When the eastern forts wer,
: abandoned by the government TIL
: camels were turned loose to taxi car
of themselves. Those at Yuma a n
, Fort TETON were taken to Benicia, con
demned and sold at auction to III
highest bidder. Iney were bought b.
: two Frenchmen, who took them t.
: Reese River, Nevada, where they wer
used in packing salt to Virginia City
, Afterward they were taken to Arizon
and for some time used in packing or
: from the Silver King mine down tn
ella TO Yuma. Even the FTenchmen'
patience gave out at last. Disguise
: with their hunch-backed burden beal
, ers they turned the whole herd loos
. on the desert near Maricopa Wells
The descendants of these camels ar
still running wild on the deserts {
Il southern Arizona.