As a boy of nine he helped a sheep drover to drive sheep and sometimes walked 12 miles a day.
But in early 1712 Rob Roy's head drover, having purchased the cattle, then sold it on and disappeared with the funds.
There were many ways by which the dishonest drover could dupe the English grazier.
Here he spent two more years on a farm, and then, securing employment as a drover, worked his way to Philadelphia and finally to Albany, New York, where for two years he taught school, studied medicine, and was a labourer on the Erie Canal.
In the amusements we have referred to does the " jolly drover " while the night away in Abilene.