The Camel Hunt; A Narrative of Personal Adventure (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1853 Excerpt: ... off with more than usual meaning in his conntenance. He informed us that a small caravan of fifty camels was to leave on the morrow for Wed-nooc. the residence of an American gentleman by the name of Vinal, of whom we had heard a good deal since our arrival. This gentleman had a splendid town establishment in Mogadore, but seldom resided therebeing, as we understood, an eccentric individual. who preferred his place at Wed-noon, where he was a kind of prince, and often made excursions far into the desert with the wandering Arab tribes, or cruised about the coast, or to the Canaries and Cape de Verde islands, in his fast sailing yacht. We also learned from our interpreter that this same Mr. Vinal was a large landed proprietor at Wed-noon, that he owned whole caravans of camels, and that he had great influence over the wandering tribes who came there occasionally for supplies. As he never gave us any personal description of him. and always mentioned his name with the profotraJest respect, I figured him to myself as a veneraNe man, who was spending the last remnant of his days in this self exile, hoping, perhaps, to do something to atone for early errors, or to wipe away the too bitter recollection of some crime of his manhood. I thought it probable that he was a man of science, and had exhibited certain feats of skill in presence of these roving Arabs, which had won their admiration and esteem. Our interpreter had often suggested to us a journey to Wed-noon, for the purpose of consulting with this gentleman relative to the best plan to be pursued in the furtherance of our voyage. He had given us to understand, that if Mr. Vinal should be favorably disposed towards our enterprise, there was nothing to prevent its immediate fulfilment; that Wed-noon was out of t...