Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-05
ODD INCIDENTS .N AMERIcAS
 HISTORY
THE IMPORTATION OF cAArELs

In the early tlfties, when an effort 1 was started seriously to connect the East and the West, many projects for it's accomplishment were put forward | That highways of some sort should be built across the plains at government expense was apparent and Congress gave it's support to national roads. The se- lection of a. route for one of three from New Mexico to California was entrusted i to Lieut.. BeaIe, and it IS of more than passing interest because he was at the 1 same time to test the fitness of the cam
 el as a beast of burden on the great /, American desert.
 | The scheme was an old one, but it
 was not till the spring of 1855 that 1 Congress appropriated thirty thousahd
 dollars to be expended by the Secretary of War in the purchase and importation
 of camels and dromedarfss to be used
 for military purposes.
 The Secretary acted promptly. and
 late in May Major Henry C. Wayne was on his way to the Leyant in the
 storeship Supply "a procure the ami
 mals. stop was made at Florence to investigate the treatment of camels in Tuscany and at Tlnis to buy one to study the proper handling of them
 at sea. Hearing of the purchase and the de- sire of the government to domesticate the camel in the United States the Bey presented two, but they were SO dis eased and mangy that they were put on shore at Constantinople. whence a journey was made into the Crimea in tsearch of Bactrian camels.
 l Four were presented by the Turkish
 Government, supposed to be of the best breed, were to come from Asia Minor and were to be delivered in a
 week. But when three weeks passed : abd no canels came, Major Wayne sailed without them to Alexandria. There ; he was permitted to buy but four drom- l edaries. for the viceroy, in view of the
 coming war, would not. allow any more
 10 leave the country. Finally, as an l expression of good will he presented six T They also were to be of the finest
 breed and selected from the Viceroy's
 own herd, but when they came they
 were common street camels, picked up
 | In Alexandria. Angry at the fraud Q Major Wayne appealed to the Viceroy :. and after a weeks delay received, not :, swift dromedaries of the desert but ar U inferior breed, fit only to carry goods. At last at Smyrna enough were se- '. toured to fill the ship and. in May. 1859 y the Supply, with thiTty-three camel. ' and dromedaries Sntered Matagorda Bay and landed them St Indianola, Texas. The Supply was then sent back fol
 more and the animals taken to cam5 C a few miles from San Antonio, wher' !, some died: The rest were taken tr | Camp Verde, some sixty miles away $ and for a time carried grain from Sal T Antonio to the camp. Capt. David D " Porter. in the Supply. meantime pro n cured forty-four camels and in Febru 0 ary, 1857, landed them at Indianola
 iSome were used by a contractor build s tlng wagon road, and carried a loa' It of seven hundred pounds each, witt e less trouble from sore feet and lam e backs than mules or horses, ant o browsed on bushes the mules would no e touch.
 g Just at this time Lieut.. Beale wa Ic ordered to survey a route for wago n road from Fort Defiance, in New Mex
 leo to the Colorado river, and to test tn n ldtness of camels for military purpose 1f he was to take some with him. Select y Ing twenty-five camels and threeSdrem 'e edaries from those at Camp Verde, h = started in June for Fl PaSo, went on [ ,r Albuquerque, and then to Zuni, crossn n the Divide, passed down the wes.er S. slope of the Little Colorado, followe es Whipples traie-s to the Great Colorado
 which the camels swan; went on t
 the MojaVe river ana Dy the MoFmo
 road to Los Angeles. which he reache
 late in November.
 IS. The camels 1he reported were mos l. useful, and he looked forward to tn $. time when they would be in general us Tt n all parts of the country Jefferso ed Davis, Secretary of War, was of lik In mind. He, too believed that their ust SC fulness on the plains in military opera H. tions against rowing bands of Indian
 was beyond question, and urged Cor al gress to authorize the importation of SO thousand cameis.
 ,v The government spent much mone ,a and pains to acclimatize them as a n army transport service in the dry Soutl 70 western regions, but the civil war inte ad rupted the arrangements, but the a ,S tempts made by private hands to utilii .b the animals were not profitable. Man ,d were turned loose and roamed wild alor ad the Mexican border, but multiplied vel as little aHd are now supposed to be el of tinct. In 1867 a few were captured b " an enterprising ranchman/ and sold o, shownen.
 on CTomorrow-How Our Early Presiden " Were Selected.)
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