1 INTRODUCTION 



Mexico, from the Mississippi to the Pacific coast. 

 He had associated with many redoubtable charac- 

 ters of the old West with men like Kit Carson, 

 Bill Williams, the Bents, the Sublettes, Joe Meek, 

 St. Vrain, Fitzpatrick, Killbuck, and La Bonte. 

 He was equally at home among Americans, Cana- 

 dians, Creoles, Mexicans, Spanish Californians, 

 and Indians. Each of these picturesque types he 

 has shown to the life. No narrative or formal his- 

 tory of that time has described the pioneers of the 

 Far West with such actual truth and fidelity. 



The wildness of the adventures related by 

 Ruxton led many readers to suspect that they 

 were mere romance. The author replied, in a 

 letter to his publishers : 



" I think it would be well to correct a misap- 

 prehension as to the truth or fiction of the paper. 

 It is no fiction. There is no incident in it which 

 has not actually occurred, nor one character who 

 is not well known in the Rocky Mountains, with 

 the exception of two whose names are changed." 



Fully half of the names of Americans mentioned 

 in his book can be identified today with the men 

 who bore them. Again he wrote: 



" I have brought out a few more softening traits 

 in the characters of the mountaineers but not 

 at the sacrifice of truth for some of them have 

 their good points ; which, as they are rarely allowed 

 to rise to the surface, must be laid hold of at once 

 before they sink again. Killbuck that ' old 



