“Between the years 1743 and 1755 my manner of life was such as led me to a general acquaintance both with the British and French settlements in North America, and especially with the uncultivated desart, the mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes and several passes that lay between and contiguous to the said settlements. Nor did I content myself with the accounts received from Indians or the information of hunters but travelled over large tracts of the country myself, which tended not more to gratify my curiosity, than to inure me to hardships, and, without vanity, I may say, to qualify me for the very service I have since been employed in.”
—Rogers’ Journals, Introduction. Dublin, 1769.
Robert Rogers was six feet in height, a well-formed, fine looking man, with fine manners and magnetic presence. He was one of the most athletic men of his time, well known in all trials of strength or skill. General Stark used to say of him, that for presence of mind in time of danger, he was unsurpassed.
At the age of twenty-three years he organized and disciplined his Rangers. On the 6th of April, 1758, Captain Rogers was promoted to a Majority and had command of this famous corps.
His Journals of his Ranging Service, present an interesting account of his severe and perilous warfare. It is very rare. A copy recently brought £25. Some of the principal causes of the war are exhibited with spirit and truth in his drama Ponteach. His Concise Account of North America and his Concise Historical Account, etc., are both rare books containing valuable information.
He died in London, on May 18, 1795.
I claim, and with a justifiable pride, that Robert Rogers, the famous partisan chief, was the greatest American in the “Old French and Indian War.”
Major Rogers was an author as well as a soldier. After the close of the “Seven Years’ War,” he went to London and published four books, viz.: