Three Years Among The Camanches. The Narrative Of Nelson Lee, The Texan Ranger, Containing A Detailed Account Of His Captivity Among The Indians, His Singular Escape Through The Instrumentality Of His Watch, And Fully Illustrating Indian Life As It Was On The Warpath And In The Camp.

NELSON LEE

Publication: Baker Taylor, 1859, Albany

First Edition. Original Brown Cloth, with gilt imprint on front cover and decorative blind-stamping on front and rear. xxii. 224pp. Frontispiece. Editor's Preface. "Besides drama and hair-raising excitement, this book offers the best contemporary description of the life of the early Texas Rangers and one of the few surviving eyewitness accounts of the life and activities of the ferocious Comanche Indians...The accounts of the Texas Rangers service, Mier Expedition, and Mexican War are generally accurate, always fascinating, and add considerably to our knowledge of those events."--Basic Texas Books 123. "Nelson Lee had a varied life on the frontier, serving in the Black Hawk War, the Texas Navy and Rangers, and taking part in the Tier Expedition and the Mexican-American War. In 1855 he headed overland to California across Texas and was captured by Comanches. He spent the next three years as a captive and slave, surviving to escape and write a fascinating account of his adventures. Lee was often dismissed by earlier historians, but most of his stories are verifiable, and Walter Prescott Webb asserted that his book had "unique value," comparing Lee to Cabeza de Vaca."--The Best Of The West 155. "At the conclusion of the (Mexican) War, he started overland for California, at the head of a company of 22 adventurers, but had only been out a few days when the party was surrounded by the savages and all but the author and three others were summarily butchered. His experiences in captivity are of great interest, and afford a minute account of the manners and customs of the tribe. He gives also an account of the hardships and sufferings of co-captives, Mrs. Haskins and her two daughters, including the torture of the former."--Eberstadt, Texas, 162:488. Some light sunning to spine, else a fine, clean, bright, tight copy in original cloth binding!! Protected in a handsome, half-leather clamshell box with marbled boards and spine with raised bands, as well as title, author, and year of publication in gilt. An exceptionally rare and highly-desirable copy.