CHAP. vIIi.] ORGANISATION OF CARAVAN 123
to ensure that all stores and equipment required for travels likely to spread over eight months, aiid under widely varying conditions of ground and climate, should be kept within easy reach. I found that, including riding animals, eight camels and twelve ponies would be needed for my caravan. The season was not favourable for the purchase of camels, for most of the caravan animals were away engaged on the brisk summer traffic towards the Russian trade-centres of Andijan and Almati. But after lengthy trials and negotiations, in the course of which the local experience and help of Munshi Bahadur Shah and other members of Mr. Macartney's establishment proved of great advantage, the necessary complement of transport and riding animals was gradually secured. 'The trouble taken about their selection was, as subsequent experience showed, fully rewarded by the result. For notwithstanding the fatigues and hardships implied by travels which covered an aggregate of more than 3,000 miles, none of the animals I brought from Kasligar ever broke down. The average price paid for the camels amounted to 62.1 Tangas per animal, representing approximately Rs. 91, at the then current rate of exchange. The cost of the ponies varied considerably, an average of 260 Tangas, or 38 rupees, being paid for each of a serviceable lot of baggage animals.
In regard to the personnel, too, of my caravan it was necessary to exercise careful selection, in order to keep the number of followers down to the minimum indicated by considerations for economy and for facility of supply arrangements. For Mirza Alum, my personal servant from Peshawar, who had proved not quite equal to the fatigues of rough and rapid marching in the mountains, I found a very useful substitute in Muhammad-Ju, a hardy ` `Kirakash ' of half Yarkandi, half Kashmiri extraction, who from long trading experience on the Karakorum route had acquired much useful knowledge about ponies. Having served Captain Deasy on his return journey to India, he had also learned the indispensable rudi-
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