THE GOVERNMENT'S IMPORTATION OF CAMELS: A

HISTORICAL SKETCH.

By CHARLES C. CARROLL, A. M.,

Editorial Office, Bureau of Animal Industry.

In the early "fifties" the Government was sorely beset with difficulties in protecting the vast frontiers of the country from the ravages of hostile Indians. The transportation of men and supplies over the great reaches of plain, mountain, and desert that stretched between the Mississippi River and the Pacific coast was a problem that swallowed liberal appropriations of money and used up thousands of mules, and was in the end so poorly solved as to chafe and fret the spirits of successive commanders. The roving Indian, with his agile pony that enabled him to make deadly swoops on isolated settlements and escape with ease, was a continual nightmare to the War Department; while the unprotected condition of the Pacific coast, so remote and so painful of access, disturbed it no less. Under these circumstances it occurred to the military officials that the use of the camel might at least aid them in performing the difficult duties of protecting the expanding frontier and of keeping open a line of communication between the Mississippi and the coast.

The idea of transplanting this old servant of mankind from the East into America was not a new one. After the conquest of South America by the Spaniards, it is recorded that Juan de Reineza, a Biscayan, made an attempt to introduce camels into Peru, and toward the end of the sixteenth century camels were seen near the foot of the Andes by José Acosta, the Spanish missionary and writer. But the animals were not looked on with favor by the ruling Spaniards, and they dwindled away. In 1701 a vessel, probably a slave trader, brought some camels from Guinea to Virginia, but no record remains of the enterprise except that it failed. In the early times camels were brought also to Jamaica and employed there with success until a small insect, called the "chiqua," so we are told, got into their feet and ended their usefulness.

Maj. George H. Crosman was the first of our military men to consider and advocate the use of the animal for military purposes in this country, the transportation difficulties of our stubborn Indian war in Florida convincing him that camels might be used with effect. He made a study of the subject, and about 1836 brought it to the attenH. Doc. 743, 58-2-26

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