Book excerpt: In this sympathetic biography, Robert Rogers appears as a true a hero of the French and Indian War, the St. Francis Raid, Pontiac's Conspiracy, and the fruitless search of the Northwest Passage in the Hudson Bay. A controversial man in his own time and even today, his life was as turbulent as the times in which he lived. Loved by his men, but often in conflict with authority, court martialed on a charge of treason, always pursued by creditors, his career zig-zagged erratically from fame to obscurity. Basing his account on much original research, Mr. Cuneo sheds new light on the days when white men and Indians scalped one another.