The wife of a minister in a small frontier town west of Boston, Mary Rowlandson was forced to leave her house in the late winter of 1676 after marauding Indians set the building on fire. "I had often before this said," she later wrote, "that if the Indians should come, I should chuse rather to be killed by them than taken alive but when it came to the tryal my mind changed; their glittering weapons so daunted my spirit, that I chose rather to go along . . . than to end my days."
Thus began Mary Rowlandson's account of her arduous journey as a servant to her captors, the Narragansett...

Captive Among the Indians is a collection of stories written by men who claimed to be captured by native tribes; they are an interesting piece of history.

CAMPING AND WOODCRAFT, VOL. 1
By Horace Kephart

Excerpt from Preface
The present work is based upon my "Book of Camping and Woodcraft," which appeared in 1906. All of the original material here retained has been revised, and so much new matter has been added that this is virtually a new work, filling two volumes instead of one.
My first book was intended as a pocket manual for those who travel where there are no roads and who perforce must go light. I took little thought of the fast-growing multitude who go to more accessible places and camp out just for the pleasure and...

From the intro: "James Smith, pioneer, was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in 1737. When he was eighteen years of age he was captured by the Indians, was adopted into one of their tribes, and lived with them as one of themselves until his escape in 1759. He became a lieutenant under General Bouquet during the expedition against the Ohio Indians in 1764, and was captain of a company of rangers in Lord Dunmore's War. In 1775 he was promoted to major of militia. He served in the Pennsylvania convention in 1776, and in the assembly in 1776-77. In the latter year he was commissioned colonel...

2016 Reprint of 1908 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This title continues to rank very high among the best sporting books of all time. A standard manual for campers and a veritable outdoor enthusiast's bible for over a century, the book reflects Horace Kephart's practical knowledge and covers, in depth, any problem that campers might confront. Kephart lived in the Great Smoky Mountains and spent most of his time in the wild. Consequently, he became an expert on all aspects of camp life from living in a semi-permanent lean-to...

Finally published in 1917 and coming in at over 450 pages long, Horace Kephart's Camping and Woodcraft Volume II - Woodcraft is the original "Bushcraft" book. Written as it was during the first decades of the 20th Century, it captures and distills Indian lore, knowledge of the pioneers and mountain men and provides a clear link to the American West. This volume is packed with details on primitive skills, edible plants, navigation, minimalist backpacking, wilderness survival and what we would call today bushcraft. Although Kephart had previously published The Book of Camping and Woodcraft in...