The author writes like an honest, a sensible, and a modest man; and has given, throughout his whole account, undoubted proofs that he is a brave and skillful officer. He headed, with much reputation, the provincial troops called rangers, during the whole course of what were called the French wars in America.—Bibliotheca Americana Nova, or catalogue of books relating to America, printed from 1700 to 1800, By O. Rich, London, 1832. Quoted by
John Fellows, in The Veil Removed (New York, 1843), p. 20.
ROGERS’ CONCISE ACCOUNT (From the Monthly Review or Literary Journal: By Several Hands. London, January, 1776.)
A concise Account of North America: Containing a Description of the several British Colonies on that Continent, including the Islands of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, &c. as to their Situation, Extent, Climate, Soil, Produce, Rise, Government, Religion, present Boundaries, and the Number of Inhabitants supposed to be in each. Also of the interior, or Westerly Parts of the Country, upon the Rivers St. Laurence, the Mississipi, Christino, and the Great Lakes. To which is subjoined, an Account of the several Nations and Tribes of Indians residing in those Parts, as to their Customs, Manners, Government, Numbers, &c. containing many useful and entertaining Facts, never before treated of. By Major Robert Rogers. 8vo. 5s. bound. Millan.
Few of our Readers, we apprehend, are unacquainted with the name, or ignorant of the exploits, of Major Rogers; who, with so much reputation, headed the provincial troops called Rangers, during the whole course of our late successful wars in America. To this brave, active, judicious officer, it is, that the public are obliged for the most satisfactory account we have ever yet been favoured with, of the interior parts of that immense continent which victory hath so lately added to the British empire.——For, as to what Charlevoix, and other French writers, have related, experience hath shewn with what artful fallacy their accounts have been drawn up:—with the obvious design of concealing, from other nations, the true situation, and real circumstances of that country, of which we were, in many respects, totally ignorant, till the British lion, in revenge of repeated insults, tore away the veil, and opened to our view, the wide, extended, glorious prospect!
The present publication, however, as may be supposed, from the quantity and price above specified, contains but a part of the Major’s intended work; the remainder being proposed to be printed by subscription; and to be illustrated with maps of the several colonies, and of the interior country of North America. These we are assured, in the Author’s advertisement, will be ‘more correct, and easier to be understood, than any yet published.’
Our Author was, happily for his country, the better qualified not only for the task he hath now enjoined his pen, but also for the atchievements in which his sword hath been employed, by the circumstance of his having received his ‘early education in a frontier town in the province of New Hampshire, where he could hardly avoid obtaining some knowlege of the manners, customs, and language of the Indians, as many of them resided in the neighbourhood, and daily conversed with the English.—Between the years 1743 and 1755, his manner of life[5] was such, as led him 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 he content himself with the accounts he received from the Indians, or the information of hunters, but travelled over large tracts of the country himself; which tended not more to gratify curiosity, than to inure him to hardship.——And hardships[6] enough he was destined to endure!
The accounts here given of the British colonies are very brief. They seem to have been chiefly intended to form an introduction to the Major’s description of our late conquests in that part of the world; and which must, undoubtedly, be considered as the most valuable part of his work. Accordingly he himself observes, that ‘it will not be expected, after volumes on volumes that have been published concerning the British colonies on the eastern shore of the American continent, that any thing materially new can be related of them.’ The only thing, adds he, ‘that I mean to attempt with regard to this is, to collect such facts and circumstances, as in a political and commercial view, appear to me to be most interesting; to reduce them to an easy and familiar method, and contract them within such narrow limits, that the whole may be seen as it were at once, and every thing material be collected from a few pages, concerning seventeen provinces; a minute and circumstantial account of which would fill so many considerable volumes.
‘In doing this, where my own knowlege (acquired by travelling several times through most of them) did not serve me, I have endeavoured to make use of the most authentic materials, collected from others, and to set every fact and circumstance in a true and impartial light, without favour or prejudice to any particular part or party.