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by George F. Ruxton (Author)
George Frederick Ruxton (24 July 1821 - 29 August 1848) was a British explorer and travel writer. He was a Lieutenant in the British Army, received a medal for gallantry from Queen Isabella II of Spain, was a hunter and explorer and published papers and books about his travels to Africa, Canada, Mexico and the United States. He observed the westward expansion of the United States in the 1840s during the period when the country's government was pursuing its policy of manifest destiny.He was the first author to write "extensively" of the mountain men of the Rocky Mountains. Early life George Frederick Augustus Ruxton, or George Augustus Frederick Ruxton, was born to Anna Maria Hay Ruxton and John Ruxton, Esquire near Oxfordshire, England. His maternal grandfather was Colonel Patrick Hay, a descendent of the house of Tweeddales. Ruxton attended Turnbridge School and began his education at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, but left before receiving his commission.He had an adventuresome spirit: "I was a vagabond in all my propensities. Everything quiet or commonplace I detested and my spirit chafed within me to see the world and participate in scenes of novelty and danger."Spain He was a soldier during a Spanish Civil War, 1833-39 at the age of 17. He became a lancer under Diego de León and received the Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand from Queen Isabella II for his gallantry at Belascoáin. He wrote of his experiences in the Far West: I must confess that the very happiest moments of my life have been spent in the wilderness of the Far West; and I never recall, but with pleasure, the remembrance of my solitary camp in the Bayou Salade [Salt valley of South Park, Colorado], with no friend near me more faithful than my rifle, and no companions more sociable than my good horse and mules, or the attendant cayute which nightly serenaded us. With a plentiful supply of dry pine-logs on the fire, and its cheerful blaze streaming far up into the sky, illuminating the valley far and near, and, pipe in mouth, watch the blue smoke as it curled upwards, building castles in the vapoury wreaths, and, in the fantastic shapes it assumed, peopling the solitude with figures of those far away... I believe not one instance could be adduced of even the most polished and civilised of men, who had once tasted the sweets of its attendant liberty, and freedom from every worldly care, not regretting the moment when he exchanged it for the monotonous life of the settlements, nor sighing and sighing again once more to partake of its pleasures and allurements...............
