The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 Read online

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  Transcriber's Note

  The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfullypreserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

  _The_ LAST _of the_ MOHICANS

  A NARRATIVE OF 1757

 

  _by_ JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

  _Illustrated by_ N.C. Wyeth

  "_Mislike me not for my complexion, The shadowed livery of the burnished sun._"

  NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

  1933

  _Copyright, 1919, by Charles Scribner's Sons_

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  FACING PAGE

  UNCAS SLAYS A DEER 26

  Avoiding the horns of the infuriated animal, Uncas darted to his side, and passed his knife across the throat

  THE BATTLE AT GLENS FALLS 66

  Each of the combatants threw all his energies into that effort, and the result was, that both tottered on the brink of the precipice

  THE FIGHT IN THE FOREST 114

  The battle was now entirely terminated, with the exception of the protracted struggle between Le Renard Subtil and Le Gros Serpent

  THE MEETING OF THE GENERALS 166

  As soon as this slight salutation had passed, Montcalm moved towards them with a quick but graceful step, baring his head to the veteran, and dropping his spotless plume nearly to the earth in courtesy

  THE FLIGHT ACROSS THE LAKE 214

  The scout having ascertained that the Mohicans were sufficient of themselves to maintain the requisite distance, deliberately laid aside his paddle, and raised the fatal rifle

  THE TERMAGANT 250

  Throwing back her light vestment, she stretched forth her long skinny arm, in derision

  THE MASQUERADER 268

  The grim head fell on one side, and in its place appeared the honest, sturdy countenance of the scout

  THE LOVERS 278

  Heyward and Alice took their way together towards the distant village of the Delawares

  THE SUPPLICANT 320

  Cora had cast herself to her knees; and, with hands clenched in each other and pressed upon her bosom, she remained like a beauteous and breathing model of her sex

  THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS

  THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS

  CHAPTER I

  "Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared: The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold: Say, is my kingdom lost?"

  SHAKESPEARE.

  It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, thatthe toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered beforethe adverse hosts could meet. A wide and apparently an imperviousboundary of forests severed the possessions of the hostile provinces ofFrance and England. The hardy colonist, and the trained European whofought at his side, frequently expended months in struggling against therapids of the streams, or in effecting the rugged passes of themountains, in quest of an opportunity to exhibit their courage in a moremartial conflict. But, emulating the patience and self-denial of thepractised native warriors, they learned to overcome every difficulty;and it would seem that, in time, there was no recess of the woods sodark, nor any secret place so lovely, that it might claim exemption fromthe inroads of those who had pledged their blood to satiate theirvengeance, or to uphold the cold and selfish policy of the distantmonarchs of Europe.

  Perhaps no district throughout the wide extent of the intermediatefrontiers can furnish a livelier picture of the cruelty and fiercenessof the savage warfare of those periods than the country which liesbetween the head waters of the Hudson and the adjacent lakes.

  The facilities which nature had there offered to the march of thecombatants were too obvious to be neglected. The lengthened sheet of theChamplain stretched from the frontiers of Canada, deep within theborders of the neighboring province of New York, forming a naturalpassage across half the distance that the French were compelled tomaster in order to strike their enemies. Near its southern termination,it received the contributions of another lake, whose waters were solimpid as to have been exclusively selected by the Jesuit missionariesto perform the typical purification of baptism, and to obtain for it thetitle of lake "du Saint Sacrement." The less zealous English thoughtthey conferred a sufficient honor on its unsullied fountains, when theybestowed the name of their reigning prince, the second of the house ofHanover. The two united to rob the untutored possessors of its woodedscenery of their native right to perpetuate its original appellation of"Horican."[1]

  Winding its way among countless islands, and imbedded in mountains, the"holy lake" extended a dozen leagues still farther to the south. Withthe high plain that there interposed itself to the further passage ofthe water, commenced a portage of as many miles, which conducted theadventurer to the banks of the Hudson, at a point where, with the usualobstructions of the rapids, or rifts, as they were then termed in thelanguage of the country, the river became navigable to the tide.

  While, in the pursuit of their daring plans of annoyance, the restlessenterprise of the French even attempted the distant and difficult gorgesof the Alleghany, it may easily be imagined that their proverbialacuteness would not overlook the natural advantages of the district wehave just described. It became, emphatically, the bloody arena, in whichmost of the battles for the mastery of the colonies were contested.Forts were erected at the different points that commanded the facilitiesof the route, and were taken and retaken, razed and rebuilt, as victoryalighted on the hostile banners. While the husbandman shrank back fromthe dangerous passes, within the safer boundaries of the more ancientsettlements, armies larger than those that had often disposed of thesceptres of the mother countries, were seen to bury themselves in theseforests, whence they rarely returned but in skeleton bands, that werehaggard with care, or dejected by defeat. Though the arts of peace wereunknown to this fatal region, its forests were alive with men; itsshades and glens rang with the sounds of martial music, and the echoesof its mountains threw back the laugh, or repeated the wanton cry, ofmany a gallant and reckless youth, as he hurried by them, in thenoontide of his spirits, to slumber in a long night of forgetfulness.

  It was in this scene of strife and bloodshed that the incidents we shallattempt to relate occurred, during the third year of the war whichEngland and France last waged for the possession of a country thatneither was destined to retain.

  The imbecility of her military leaders abroad, and the fatal want ofenergy in her councils at home, had lowered the character of GreatBritain from the proud elevation on which it had been placed, by thetalents and enterprise of her former warriors and statesmen. No longerdreaded by her enemies, her servants were fast losing the confidence ofself-respect. In this mortifying abasement, the colonists, thoughinnocent of her imbecility, and too humble to be the agents of herblunders, were but the natural participators.

  They had recently seen a chosen army from that country, which,reverencing as a mother, they had blindly believed invincible--an armyled by a chief who had been selected from a crowd of trained warriors,for his rare military endowments, disgracefully routed by a handful ofFrench and Indians, and only saved from annihilation by the coolness andspirit of a Virginian boy, whose riper fame has since diffused itself,with the steady influence of moral truth, to the uttermost confines ofChristendom.[2] A wide frontier had been laid naked by this unexpecteddisaster, and more sub
stantial evils were preceded by a thousandfanciful and imaginary dangers. The alarmed colonists believed that theyells of the savages mingled with every fitful gust of wind that issuedfrom the interminable forests of the west. The terrific character oftheir merciless enemies increased immeasurably the natural horrors ofwarfare. Numberless recent massacres were still vivid in theirrecollections; nor was there any ear in the provinces so deaf as not tohave drunk in with avidity the narrative of some fearful tale ofmidnight murder, in which the natives of the forests were the principaland barbarous actors. As the credulous and excited traveller related thehazardous chances of the wilderness, the blood of the timid curdledwith terror, and mothers cast anxious glances even at those childrenwhich slumbered within the security of the largest towns. In short, themagnifying influence of fear began to set at naught the calculations ofreason, and to render those who should have remembered their manhood,the slaves of the basest of passions. Even the most confident and thestoutest hearts began to think the issue of the contest was becomingdoubtful; and that abject class was hourly increasing in numbers, whothought they foresaw all the possessions of the English crown in Americasubdued by their Christian foes, or laid waste by the inroads of theirrelentless allies.

  When, therefore, intelligence was received at the fort, which coveredthe southern termination of the portage between the Hudson and thelakes, that Montcalm had been seen moving up the Champlain, with an army"numerous as the leaves on the trees," its truth was admitted with moreof the craven reluctance of fear than with the stern joy that a warriorshould feel, in finding an enemy within reach of his blow. The news hadbeen brought, towards the decline of a day in midsummer, by an Indianrunner, who also bore an urgent request from Munro, the commander of awork on the shore of the "holy lake," for a speedy and powerfulreinforcement. It has already been mentioned that the distance betweenthese two posts was less than five leagues. The rude path, whichoriginally formed their line of communication, had been widened for thepassage of wagons; so that the distance which had been travelled by theson of the forest in two hours, might easily be effected by a detachmentof troops, with their necessary baggage, between the rising and settingof a summer sun. The loyal servants of the British crown had given toone of these forest fastnesses the name of William Henry, and to theother that of Fort Edward; calling each after a favorite prince of thereigning family. The veteran Scotchman just named held the first, with aregiment of regulars and a few provincials; a force really by far toosmall to make head against the formidable power that Montcalm wasleading to the foot of his earthen mounds. At the latter, however, layGeneral Webb, who commanded the armies of the king in the northernprovinces, with a body of more than five thousand men. By uniting theseveral detachments of his command, this officer might have arrayednearly double that number of combatants against the enterprisingFrenchman, who had ventured so far from his reinforcements, with an armybut little superior in numbers.

  But under the influence of their degraded fortunes, both officers andmen appeared better disposed to await the approach of their formidableantagonists, within their works, than to resist the progress of theirmarch, by emulating the successful example of the French at Fort duQuesne, and striking a blow on their advance.

  After the first surprise of the intelligence had a little abated, arumor was spread through the entrenched camp, which stretched along themargin of the Hudson, forming a chain of outworks to the body of thefort itself, that a chosen detachment of fifteen hundred men was todepart, with the dawn, for William Henry, the post at the northernextremity of the portage. That which at first was only rumor, soonbecame certainty, as orders passed from the quarters of thecommander-in-chief to the several corps he had selected for thisservice, to prepare for their speedy departure. All doubt as to theintention of Webb now vanished, and an hour or two of hurried footstepsand anxious faces succeeded. The novice in the military art flew frompoint to point, retarding his own preparations by the excess of hisviolent and somewhat distempered zeal; while the more practised veteranmade his arrangements with a deliberation that scorned every appearanceof haste; though his sober lineaments and anxious eye sufficientlybetrayed that he had no very strong professional relish for the as yetuntried and dreaded warfare of the wilderness. At length the sun set ina flood of glory, behind the distant western hills, and as darkness drewits veil around the secluded spot the sounds of preparation diminished;the last light finally disappeared from the log cabin of some officer;the trees cast their deeper shadows over the mounds and the ripplingstream, and a silence soon pervaded the camp, as deep as that whichreigned in the vast forest by which it was environed.

  According to the orders of the preceding night, the heavy sleep of thearmy was broken by the rolling of the warning drums, whose rattlingechoes were heard issuing, on the damp morning air, out of every vistaof the woods, just as day began to draw the shaggy outlines of some tallpines of the vicinity, on the opening brightness of a soft and cloudlesseastern sky. In an instant the whole camp was in motion; the meanestsoldier arousing from his lair to witness the departure of hiscomrades, and to share in the excitement and incidents of the hour. Thesimple array of the chosen band was soon completed. While the regularand trained hirelings of the king marched with haughtiness to the rightof the line, the less pretending colonists took their humbler positionon its left, with a docility that long practice had rendered easy. Thescouts departed; strong guards preceded and followed the lumberingvehicles that bore the baggage; and before the gray light of the morningwas mellowed by the rays of the sun, the main body of the combatantswheeled into column, and left the encampment with a show of highmilitary bearing, that served to drown the slumbering apprehensions ofmany a novice, who was now about to make his first essay in arms. Whilein view of their admiring comrades, the same proud front and orderedarray was observed, until the notes of their fifes growing fainter indistance, the forest at length appeared to swallow up the living masswhich had slowly entered its bosom.

  The deepest sounds of the retiring and invisible column had ceased to beborne on the breeze to the listeners, and the latest straggler hadalready disappeared in pursuit; but there still remained the signs ofanother departure, before a log cabin of unusual size andaccommodations, in front of which those sentinels paced their rounds,who were known to guard the person of the English general. At this spotwere gathered some half dozen horses, caparisoned in a manner whichshowed that two, at least, were destined to bear the persons of females,of a rank that it was not usual to meet so far in the wilds of thecountry. A third wore the trappings and arms of an officer of the staff;while the rest, from the plainness of the housings, and the travellingmails with which they were encumbered, were evidently fitted for thereception of as many menials, who were, seemingly, already awaiting thepleasure of those they served. At a respectful distance from thisunusual show were gathered divers groups of curious idlers; someadmiring the blood and bone of the high-mettled military charger, andothers gazing at the preparations, with dull wonder of vulgar curiosity.There was one man, however, who, by his countenance and actions, formeda marked exception to those who composed the latter class of spectators,being neither idle, nor seemingly very ignorant.

  The person of this individual was to the last degree ungainly, withoutbeing in any particular manner deformed. He had all the bones and jointsof other men, without any of their proportions. Erect, his staturesurpassed that of his fellows; seated, he appeared reduced within theordinary limits of the race. The same contrariety in his members seemedto exist throughout the whole man. His head was large; his shouldersnarrow; his arms long and dangling; while his hands were small, if notdelicate. His legs and thighs were thin, nearly to emaciation, but ofextraordinary length; and his knees would have been consideredtremendous, had they not been outdone by the broader foundations onwhich this false superstructure of the blended human orders was soprofanely reared. The ill-assorted and injudicious attire of theindividual only served to render his awkwardness more conspicuous. Asky-blue coat, with short
and broad skirts and low cape, exposed a longthin neck, and longer and thinner legs, to the worst animadversions ofthe evil disposed. His nether garment was of yellow nankeen, closelyfitted to the shape, and tied at his bunches of knees by large knots ofwhite ribbon, a good deal sullied by use. Clouded cotton stockings, andshoes, on one of the latter of which was a plated spur, completed thecostume of the lower extremity of this figure, no curve or angle ofwhich was concealed, but, on the other hand, studiously exhibited,through the vanity or simplicity of its owner. From beneath the flap ofan enormous pocket of a soiled vest of embossed silk, heavily ornamentedwith tarnished silver lace, projected an instrument, which, from beingseen in such martial company, might have been easily mistaken for somemischievous and unknown implement of war. Small as it was, this uncommonengine had excited the curiosity of most of the Europeans in the camp,though several of the provincials were seen to handle it, not onlywithout fear, but with the utmost familiarity. A large, civil cockedhat, like those worn by clergymen within the last thirty years,surmounted the whole, furnishing dignity to a good-natured and somewhatvacant countenance, that apparently needed such artificial aid, tosupport the gravity of some high and extraordinary trust.

  While the common herd stood aloof, in deference to the quarters of Webb,the figure we have described stalked in the centre of the domestics,freely expressing his censures or commendations on the merits of thehorses, as by chance they displeased or satisfied his judgment.

  "This beast, I rather conclude, friend, is not of home raising, but isfrom foreign lands, or perhaps from the little island itself over theblue water?" he said, in a voice as remarkable for the softness andsweetness of its tones, as was his person for its rare proportions: "Imay speak of these things, and be no braggart; for I have been down atboth havens; that which is situate at the mouth of Thames, and is namedafter the capital of Old England, and that which is called 'Haven,' withthe addition of the word 'New'; and have seen the snows and brigantinescollecting their droves, like the gathering to the ark, being outwardbound to the Island of Jamaica, for the purpose of barter and traffic infour-footed animals; but never before have I beheld a beast whichverified the true Scripture war-horse like this: 'He paweth in thevalley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armedmen. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battleafar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.' It would seemthat the stock of the horse of Israel has descended to our own time;would it not, friend?"

  Receiving no reply to this extraordinary appeal, which in truth, as itwas delivered with the vigor of full and sonorous tones, merited somesort of notice, he who had thus sung forth the language of the Holy Bookturned to the silent figure to whom he had unwittingly addressedhimself, and found a new and more powerful subject of admiration in theobject that encountered his gaze. His eyes fell on the still, upright,and rigid form of the "Indian runner," who had borne to the camp theunwelcome tidings of the preceding evening. Although in a state ofperfect repose, and apparently disregarding, with characteristicstoicism, the excitement and bustle around him, there was a sullenfierceness mingled with the quiet of the savage, that was likely toarrest the attention of much more experienced eyes than those which nowscanned him, in unconcealed amazement. The native bore both the tomahawkand knife of his tribe; and yet his appearance was not altogether thatof a warrior. On the contrary, there was an air of neglect about hisperson, like that which might have proceeded from great and recentexertion, which he had not yet found leisure to repair. The colors ofthe war-paint had blended in dark confusion about his fiercecountenance, and rendered his swarthy lineaments still more savage andrepulsive than if art had attempted an effect which had been thusproduced by chance. His eye, alone, which glistened like a fiery staramid lowering clouds, was to be seen in its state of native wildness.For a single instant, his searching and yet wary glance met thewondering look of the other, and then changing its direction, partly incunning, and partly in disdain, it remained fixed, as if penetrating thedistant air.

  It is impossible to say what unlooked-for remark this short and silentcommunication, between two such singular men, might have elicited fromthe white man, had not his active curiosity been again drawn to otherobjects. A general movement among the domestics, and a low sound ofgentle voices, announced the approach of those whose presence alone waswanted to enable the cavalcade to move. The simple admirer of thewar-horse instantly fell back to a low, gaunt, switch-tailed mare, thatwas unconsciously gleaning the faded herbage of the camp nigh by; where,leaning with one elbow on the blanket that concealed an apology for asaddle, he became a spectator of the departure, while a foal was quietlymaking its morning repast, on the opposite side of the same animal.

  A young man, in the dress of an officer, conducted to their steeds twofemales, who, as it was apparent by their dresses, were prepared toencounter the fatigues of a journey in the woods. One, and she was themost juvenile in her appearance, though both were young, permittedglimpses of her dazzling complexion, fair golden hair, and bright blueeyes, to be caught, as she artlessly suffered the morning air to blowaside the green veil which descended low from her beaver. The flushwhich still lingered above the pines in the western sky was not morebright nor delicate than the bloom on her cheek; nor was the opening daymore cheering than the animated smile which she bestowed on the youth,as he assisted her into the saddle. The other, who appeared to shareequally in the attentions of the young officer, concealed her charmsfrom the gaze of the soldiery, with a care that seemed better fitted tothe experience of four or five additional years. It could be seen,however, that her person, though moulded with the same exquisiteproportions, of which none of the graces were lost by the travellingdress she wore, was rather fuller and more mature than that of hercompanion.

  No sooner were these females seated, than their attendant sprang lightlyinto the saddle of the war-horse, when the whole three bowed to Webb,who, in courtesy, awaited their parting on the threshold of his cabin,and turning their horses' heads, they proceeded at a slow amble,followed by their train, towards the northern entrance of theencampment. As they traversed that short distance, not a voice washeard amongst them; but a slight exclamation proceeded from the youngerof the females, as the Indian runner glided by her, unexpectedly, andled the way along the military road in her front. Though this sudden andstartling movement of the Indian produced no sound from the other, inthe surprise her veil also was allowed to open its folds, and betrayedan indescribable look of pity, admiration, and horror, as her dark eyefollowed the easy motions of the savage. The tresses of this lady wereshining and black, like the plumage of the raven. Her complexion was notbrown, but it rather appeared charged with the color of the rich blood,that seemed ready to burst its bounds. And yet there was neithercoarseness nor want of shadowing in a countenance that was exquisitelyregular and dignified, and surpassingly beautiful. She smiled, as if inpity at her own momentary forgetfulness, discovering by the act a row ofteeth that would have shamed the purest ivory; when, replacing the veil,she bowed her face, and rode in silence, like one whose thoughts wereabstracted from the scene around her.