CHAPTER XXII.

EXPLORATIONS FOR WAGON ROADS-CAMELS. FELIX AUBREY-APPROPRIATIONS BY CONGRESS FOR CAMELS-MAJOR HENRY C. WAYNE AND LIEUTENANT D. D. PORTER BRING CAMELS TO UNITED STATES HABITS, ETC., OF CAMELSLIEUTENANT E. F. BEALE'S EXPEDITION-USE OF CAMELS-LIEUTENANT BEALE'S ROUTEABANDONMENT OF CAMELS - CAPTURE AND EXPORTATION-GREEK GEORGE AND HI JOLLY.

Felix Aubrey, who was identified with the Santa Fe Trade, was the first explorer of a wagon route over the 35th parallel, he having driven a wagon all the way from San Jose, California, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1854. Aubrey was accompanied by sixty men, and brought with him to Peralta the wagon which was driven the entire distance, thus furnishing irrefutable evidence that both a wagon road and a railroad were practicable to San Francisco over the 35th parallel. His notes of the journey were printed in the Missouri Republican of September 26th, 1854, and it is to be regretted that they are nowhere to be found in the Government reports, as Aubrey was a private citizen. He also drove over this route a band of sheep into California, without loss.

Aubrey, whose name is thus identified with the early history of Arizona, on his return from this last trip, met his death on the 18th of August, 1854, in Santa Fe, at the hands of Major Weightman in a personal encounter.

Aubrey's trip undoubtedly stirred up the Government to make a further exploration of that route with a view to establishing a wagon route for the benefit of emigrants into California.

In Senate Document, Second Session, 33rd Congress, Chapter 169, will be found the following:

"Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the sum of thirty thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated under the direction of the War Department in the purchase of camels and importation of dromedaries, to be employed for military purposes. Approved March 3, 1855."

Jeff Davis, the Secretary of War, appointed Major Henry C. Wayne, of the United States Army, and Lieutenant D. D. Porter, of the United States Navy, to visit Cairo, Smyrna and other points in the East for the purpose of selecting the best camels and bringing them to the United States, to be used in transportation across what was then called "The Great American Desert." The camels were to be used as beasts of burden, their usual load being from six hundred pounds up to eight hundred pounds; the dromedaries to be used for express purposes. A daily journey for the camel was about thirty miles, but the dromedaries would go seventy-five. The advantage in substituting these animals for horses and mules over the desert country was that they did not require anything like the care of a horse or mule; that they could go for days without water and would subsist on the coarsest of grass and the sprouts of young trees. The camel was a hardy animal that could do good

work even in a cold climate. The information given in response to inquiries made in reference to them showed that while they travelled well over the plains in sand or gravel, yet they could also travel through a mountainous country, the rocks apparently having no effect upon their feet.

Upon the first expedition, Major Wayne brought over thirty-three of these animals, nine dromedaries or runners, twenty-three camels of burden, and one calf. Among them were two humpbacked Bactrian camels for use in breeding with the Arabian female. This cross breeding produced a hybrid something like our mule, with only one hump, but much stronger and more serviceable than the ordinary camel. Six Arabs, one of them a Bedouin of the Desert, and a professed camel doctor, came over with the herd, which was successfully transported from Smyrna to Indianola, Texas, where they were landed on May 14, 1856. After they were rested up from their journey, they were driven by easy stages to San Antonio where experiments were made by Major Wayne who was in charge, all of which were very satisfactory. It was found that three camels could carry as much as six mules could draw in a wagon over that country, and could travel twice as fast as the mules. They could, upon occasion, for a day or two at a time, carry burdens of eight hundred to a thousand pounds.

These animals were brought over in the United States vessel "Supply," Lieutenant D. D. Porter, afterwards an Admiral in the Union Navy in the Civil War, commanding. He made

a second trip to Africa, and, returning, landed at Indianola February 17th, 1857, another herd of these animals.

In the fall of 1857 Lieutenant Edward F. Beale, U. S. Topographical Engineers, was ordered to open a wagon road from Fort Defiance, New Mexico, to the eastern frontier of California, and a part of the herd of the camels was put at his disposal for this expedition. The journey was through a wilderness of forest, plain and desert, and occupied forty-eight days, when the Colorado River was reached on October 18th. Lieutenant Beale, in speaking of the work performed by the camels on this trip, declares that they saved the members of the expedition very many hardships, and excited the admiration of the whole party by their ability and willingness to perform the tasks set them. Being determined to give a most thorough demonstration of the practicability of using camels on such expeditions, he subjected them to trials which no other animals could have endured. They carried the water on the desert for the mules; they traversed stretches of country covered with the sharpest volcanic rocks without injury to their feet; with heavy packs they climbed over mountains where mules found it difficult to go, even with the assistance of their dismounted drivers, and, to the surprise of all the party, the camels plunged into rivers without hesitation and swam them with ease. Lieutenant Beale left San Antonio June 25th, 1857, and, on July 11th, he says:

"The camels are now keeping up easily with the train, and came into camp with the wagons.

My fears as to their feet giving out, as I had been led to believe from those who seemed to know, have so far proved entirely unfounded, though the character of the road is exceedingly trying to brutes of any kind. My dogs cannot travel at all upon it, and after going a short distance run to the wagons and beg to be taken in. The camels, on the contrary, have not evinced the slightest distress or soreness; and this is the more remarkable, as mules or horses, in a very short time, get so sore-footed that shoes are indispensable. The road is very hard and firm, and strewn all over it is a fine, sharp, angular, flinty gravel-very small, about the size of a pea

-and the least friction causes it to act like a rasp upon the opposing surface. The camel has no shuffle in his gait, but lifts his feet perpendicularly from the ground, and replaces them, without sliding, as a horse or other quadrupeds do. This, together with the coarsely granulated and yielding nature of his foot, which, though very tough, like gutta percha, yields sufficiently without wearing off, enables them to travel continuously in a country where no other barefoot beast would last a week."

These camels, let it be said in passing, were under the charge of Orientals, "Greek George" and "Hi Jolly," who came with them from the Orient and attended to their packing.

In several places in his diary, Lieutenant Beale speaks in the same laudatory terms of the use of the camel, but it is significant that in his report to the Secretary of War, bearing date April 26th, 1858, there is no allusion made to these beasts. He speaks, however, in high terms