[ROGERS] ROGERS, RANGER AND LOYALIST 53 
more at home in the society of soldiers of fortune, where his prowess as 
a boon companion and raconteur was doubtless popular. 
In 1772 we find him writing from his lodgings at Spring Gardens, 
Charing Cross.! Soon after that his superfluous energies found vent 
in foreign warfare. A true Captain Dalgetty, he fought in Northern 
Africa in the Algerine service. We know from a letter of Washing- 
ton’s that he was assigned to service in the East Indies,” when the out- 
break of hostilities in America recalled him to the scene of his earlier 
activities. 
That he arrived in America with an open mind is not impossible. 
Unlike his less brilliant but more substantial brother James, he was 
probably not the man to suffer gladly for a principle. 
The conduct of the rebels, however, forced him prematurely into 
the service which would probably, in any event, have ultimately claimed 
him. ‘ 
Arrested shortly after his landing at Philadelphia, by order of the 
Pennsylvania Committee of Public Safety, he was submitted to the dis- 
posal of Congress. This body ordered his release on parole. His posi- 
tion as a half-pay officer, however, and his long identification with the 
royal service attracted the suspicion of the more violent Whigs who 
clamoured for his re-arrest, which was ultimately decided upon. The 
indignity of this second arrest was treated by him as a virtual release 
from his parole. 
Consigned by the Continental Congress as a prisoner to be dealt 
with by the New Hampshire Assembly, he was fortunate enough to 
effect his escape. Received within the English lines, he was offered 
by the commander-in-chief, Gen. Howe, the commission of colonel in 
the British service, which offer he accepted. 
With remarkable celerity, he succeeded in raising the regiment so 
honourably known in the history of the Revolution as the Queen’s 
Rangers. This corps, to which very frequent reference has been made 
in the transactions of this Society, played, under his successor in the 
command, Colonel, afterwards Lieut.-General Simcoe, a conspicuous 
part in the war and, subsequently, in the settlement of Upper Canada. 
Broken in health and possibly enfeebled by a life of dissipation, a 
tendency to which seems to have been his real moral weakness, he re- 
tired from his command in the following winter and returned to Eng- 
land. The evil example of dissipation and high play set at the head- 
quarters camp between Bedford and Amboy, in the winter of 1776-77, 
! Johnson Mss. xxi., 238. 
2 Spark’s ‘ Washington,” iii., 440. 
