Other editions of book With the Border Ruffians: Memories of the Far West, 1852-1868

Those who have not personally watched the growth of that marvellous country cannot realise the changes those fifty years have wrought, so long in a man’s life, so short a span in a nation’s history.In the summer of 1831, Robert Hamilton Williams was born to the family of a country clergyman – yet he was not destined to continue the religious tradition of his father and the quiet life in England never called him. Starting as a Liverpool seaman aged seventeen, enduring brutal captains, a dislocated shoulder and a near fatal bout of scurvy, he remained undaunted in his pursuit of adventure on the high seas. After a period of hospitalisation in Cork and a short farming apprenticeship, he departed for Adelaide and then Virginia, where his journey truly began.On arrival in Western Virginia, he encountered farmers living in near total isolation, leading a pastoral life, far from the cities and towns he grew up with. Clothes were spun and food was hunted, but this simple life didn’t hold Williams for long as he was always chasing his next voyage. He then found himself in the wildest of the Wild West, fighting for his life in Kansas in the prelude to the Great War of Secession where murder and lawlessness prevailed. He was forced to commit acts which would change his outlook forever. Witnessing the gold rush, ranch life in Texas, fighting with the Commanchés, the fierce Indian tribes practising scalping warfare in the Indian country, his story ends in 1865 with the close of the American Civil War. With the Border Ruffians is a remarkable true tale of courage and discovery from a time of frontier gun-slinging, now lost to the past. It is the life of a youth thirsting for adventure who became a man during one of the most exciting and transformative times in American history.Robert Hamilton Williams was a lieutenant in the Kansas Rangers and went on to become a captain in the Texan Rangers.

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His father and mother intended him for the Church ;he himself had aspirations for the A rmy, or the Indian Service, but neither could be managed for lack of means. Finally he went to sea as a middy on Messrs. Green s East Indiaman the Madagascar, sailing from London in February, 1848, when he was nearly seventeen years old. Green swas in those days the best service in England ;but it was too staid, too quiet, for a youth like this, thirsting for adventure, so after one voyage to India he gave it up. After this he shipped as an ordinary seaman on a Liver pool barque, bound for Callao to load with guano at the Pixo I slands. The ship, having got her evil-smelling cargo on board, returned to Callao, where the boy (he was only eighteen) deserted to escape the brutal illtreatment of the captain. When the barque had sailed he emerged from his hiding-place in the pampas, and for some months worked as mate on board a small coasting brig. The gold fever in California was then at its height, and his next idea was to get to the new Eldorado if possible, where fortune awaited the fortunate and adventures were to be met with at every turn.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the aged text. Read books online for free at

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.