Book excerpt: The American frontier in the 1730s was a dangerous place to be. Life was hard for white settlers and marauding Indians would as soon scalp as trade with them. Into this harsh environment was born Robert Rogers, a boy who would grow up to be a brilliant leader of men and become one of the most charismatic, if flawed characters of his era. Over the course of his colorful career, Rogers was a frontiersman, farmer, trapper, Ranger leader, Indian fighter (and friend), speculator, merchant, London socialite and commandant of the most important fur trading post in the West of the 1760s. It was during the French and Indian War that he set down the Rangers' "Standing Orders" on survival and guerilla warfare, which was to prove his lasting legacy and is still used by US Special Forces today. He also fraternized with the highest-ranking officers of the British Army in North America and was twice received at Court in England. And, as if all this weren't enough, he launched a search for the elusive Northwest Passage (as immortalized in the film of that name starring Spencer Tracey) but his many successes were often counterbalanced, and sometimes ruined, by a variety of personal challenges that seemed to be always nipping at his heels. This remarkable man, who ended his years in penury in London, is as little understood today as he was in his own time and has long deserved a comprehensive and fair biography. Gary Zaboly's minutely researched book seeks to remedy this omission, presenting a dispassionate and accurate account of Rogers' rollercoaster life, without recourse to moral judgment.