THE LATE 



GEORGE FREDERICK RUXTON. 



The London newspapers of October, 1848, contained the 

 mournful tidings of the death, at St. Louis on the Mississippi, 

 and at the early age of twenty-eight, of Lieutenant George 

 Frederick Ruxton, formerly of her Majesty's 89th regiment, the 

 author of the following sketches. 



Many men, even at the most enterprising periods of our 

 history, have been made the subjects of elaborate biography, 

 with far less title to the honor than this lamented young officer; 

 Time was not granted him to embody in., a permanent shape a 

 tithe of his personal experiences and strange adventures in 

 three quarters of the globe. Considering, indeed, the amount 

 of physical labor he underwent, and the extent of the fields over 

 which his wanderings spread, it is almost surprising he found 

 leisure to write so much. At the early age of seventeen, Mr. 

 Ruxton quitted Sandhurst, to learn the practical part of a 

 soldier's profession in the civil wars of Spain. He obtained a 

 commission in a squadron of lancers then attached to the 

 division of General Diego Leon, and was actively engaged in 



