b'Frederick Burnham of the Tonto RimTHE FULL STORY OF THE AMERICAN SCOUTPART 1 By Alan RockmanIt is said that a cat has nine lives.They say that a man might be very lucky if he has but one great adventure in his life. But consider thisa man who from his infancy to the end of his life, nearly nine decades later, had nearly a dozen dangerous yet exciting adventures on three continents. And to think many of his earlier adventures, the ones he first became noted for, took place in the wild and woolly Arizona territory of the late 1870s and 1880s.A s an infant of 15 months, he barely escaped death atBriefly returning to America, a rising young New YorkDue to his strength and endurance, the fact he hadn\'t eaten the hands of Sioux Indians in their notorious uprisingpolitician, having heard of the hunting and scoutingor drank in two days and that his torn stomach was empty, of 1862. He was carried away to safety by a motherexploits of his fellow American, invited him to speak beforehe barely managed to survive when a British patrol rescued who in her own childhood attended an Iowa elementarythe prestigious "Boone and Crockett Club" before he headedhim and sent him back to London for recuperation. And yet school with a classmate named William F. Cody, who wouldoff to pan for gold in the Yukon. Thus began a lifelonghis adventures, perhaps not as extraordinary as before, but later become one of his acquaintances. The young boy wasfriendship with Theodore Roosevelt.Prospecting in thestill substantial, continued.a quick study when it came to scouting, and quickly learnedYukon when the Spanish-American War broke out, he to be a crack shot much in demand. As a still fresh lad of 13,rushed to join Roosevelt\'s Rough Riders but alas they hadThe famed American War Correspondent Richard Harding who had just moved to a sleepy burg called Los Angeles, healready sailed for Cuba when he returned to the mainland.Davis would make this man the centerpiece of his book, was hunting game up in the Verdugo Hills when he had hisBut there was another war to be fought, and the young manReal Soldiers of Fortune. His name was Frederick Russell horse stolen by the notorious bandito Tiburcio Vasquez. Ateagerly signed up - again, in British service, to become theBurnham and this is his story.just barely 20 he was befriended by an Arizona ranch familyhead of Scouts in the British Army fighting the Boers in that unfortunately became involved in the great Pleasantwhat became known as the Boer War. He had escaped beingAs aforementioned, Burnham was born on the Minnesota Valley War, and he got caught up in its turmoil, again barelywounded or worse so many times but ironically it was, infrontier when sudden violence and death were a common escaping with his life. Another friend had urged him tothe last months of the conflict, when a bullet tore into hisoccurrence. In fact, he was actually born on the Sioux join the notorious Curly Bill Brocius gang in Tombstone,stomach during a demolition operation. Yet he managed toreservation where his father had been a minister but his own moral compass and the wisdom and warningdestroy the two bridges he had been ordered to take out. preaching to what was believed to be a docile, friendly of a family friend who ran a Globe newspaper convinced tribe on the surface, but resentments began to grow as him to steer clear of the outlaw life. Subsequently offeringcorrupt Indian agents cut back both credit and foodstuffs his services to General Crook\'s command, he would maketo a starving Sioux tribe. When the Sioux appealed for the acquaintance of famed scout Al Sieber and lead hisan extension in their credit, so they could buy food, the own detachment of friendly Apache scouts in pursuit ofIndian agent, Andrew J. Myrick scoffed, "Let them eat Geronimo and other renegades. grass." It was this kind of insolence that would lead even the benign, peaceful chief Little Crow, who had attended Throughout it all, this young man studied mining andEpiscopalian services and had tried to adopt white man\'s began making lucrative investments in Arizona land. Whenways, to lead his forces in an uprising against the Indian he chose to marry his childhood sweetheart, he did soagent and the peaceful settlers.only after amassing a bit of solvency. Yet ever restless, quite aware of his beloved American frontier closing down, andScores of white settlers were murdered, Myrick was one pursuing a childhood dream of exploring darkest Africa,of the very first killed, his mouth stuffed with grass. he made contact with British authorities in East Africa. HeThe Burnham family had moved to a cabin on the edge took his family across the ocean to settle there while he onceof the reservation, which was one of the reasons why more became a Scout - this time for British forces tryingMrs. Burnham and baby Fred were able to barely escape to subdue the Matabele tribesmen in what is now modern- death. In fact, Mrs. Burnham, noticed the Sioux warriors day Zimbabwe. He and two other scouts - one of them aapproaching the cabin, rushed out the back, and spying a fellow American expatriate - became the only survivors ofherd of deer in a nearby cornfield, hid baby Fred amongst what became the equivalent of Custer\'s Last Stand in thethem and the cornstalks while she ran for help. Eight Rhodesian brush land, the "Shangani Patrol," from whichhours later, Mrs. Burnham returned with help and found this young American scout, in his early 30s became a Britishbaby Fred still safe and sound, while the corpses of nearby hero. He joined Sir Robert Baden Powell, then a Lieutenantsettlers who weren\'t so lucky lay out on the open prairie Colonel in the British Colonial Army in helping tonearby (Kemper, A Splendid Savage, pp. 1-2, 6-10).subjugate another Matabele uprising, teaching Baden Powell his scouting methodology which came in good standingBurnham and his family were very fortunate to have when Baden Powell founded the Boy Scouts. survived that great Sioux uprising that was laterimmortalized in another settler\'s beloved childhood And at about the same time, this young American and hisstories, Laura Ingalls Wilder\'s Little House on the Prairie. exploits in scouting were said to be the inspiration for AllanThe unforgiving harsh weather of the great north would Quatermain in the H. Rider Haggard classic adventure novelcause an accident that proved ultimately fatal to Burnham\'s series that included King Solomon\'s Mines. In fact, it wasfather. He slipped and fell when carrying timber, with the Burnham\'s good friend Haggard who once remarked, "Intimber falling on his ribs and lungs. He initially survived, real life, he (Burnham) is far more interesting than any ofbut his health was never the same, and by the end of 1870, my heroes of romance" (Kemper, Steve, A Splendid Savage,Oil painting by John Singer when Fred was barely 9, he decided a move west might W.W.Norton & Company, 2016, p. 2). Burnham had a lifelong friendship with Theodore Roosevelt. be beneficial to his health. They settled in that little burg 30 December 2019'