GEORGE FREDERICK RUXTOX IX 



get up a yacht voyage to Borneo and the Indian Archi- 

 pelago ; have volunteered to Government to explore 

 Central Africa ; and the Aborigines Protection Society 

 wish me to go out to Canada to organise the Indian 

 tribes ; whilst, for my own part and inclination, I wish to 

 go to all parts of the world at once." 



As regards the volume to which this notice serves as 

 Preface, the editor does not hesitate to express a very 

 high opinion of its merits. Written by a man untrained 

 to literature, and whose life, from boyhood upwards, 

 was passed in the field and on the road, in military 

 adventure and travel, its style is yet often as remark- 

 able for graphic terseness and vigour, as its substance 

 everywhere is for great novelty and originality. The 

 narrative of " Life in the Far West" was first offered 

 for insertion in Blackwood's Magazine in the spring of 

 1848* when the greater portion of the manuscript was 

 sent, and the remainder shortly followed. During its 

 publication in that periodical, the wildness of the adven- 

 tures related excited suspicions in certain quarters as 

 to their actual truth and fidelity. It may interest the 

 reader to know that the scenes described are pictures 

 from life, the results of the author's personal experience. 

 The following are extracts from letters addressed by 

 him, in the course of last summer, to the conductors of 

 the Magazine above named : 



" I have brought out a few more softening traits in 



