The Last of the Mohicans

The Last of the Mohicans
Author	James Fenimore Cooper
Country	United States of America
Language	English
Series	Leatherstocking
Genre(s)	Historical novel
Publisher	H.C. Carey & I. Lea
Publication date	February 1826
Media type	Print (Hardback and Paperback)
Pages	2 vol.
ISBN	N/A
Preceded by	The Pioneers (1823)
Followed by	The Prairie (1827)

Illustration from 1896 edition, by J.T. Merrill

The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 is a historical novel by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in January 1826. It is the second book of the Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy and the best known. The Pathfinder, published 14 years later in 1840, is its sequel.^[1]

The story takes place in 1757, during the French and Indian War (the Seven Years' War), when France and Great Britain battled for control of the North American colonies. During this war, the French called on allied Native American tribes to fight against the more numerous British colonists.

Cooper named a principal character Uncas after a well-known Mohegan sachem who had been an ally of the English in 17th-century Connecticut. Cooper seemed to confuse or merge the names of the two tribes. Cooper's well-known book helped confuse popular understanding of the tribes to the present day. After the death of John Uncas in 1842, the last surviving male descendant of Uncas, the Newark Daily Advertiser wrote, "Last of the Mohegans Gone", lamenting the extinction of the tribe.^[2] The writer did not realize the Mohegan people still existed. They continue to survive today and are a federally recognized tribe, based in Connecticut.

The novel was one of the most popular in English in its time, although critics identified narrative flaws. Its length and formal prose style have limited its appeal to later readers. The Last of the Mohicans remains widely read in American literature courses.

The character Chingachgook speaks a line that holds the title, saying, "[W]hen Uncas follows in my footsteps, there will no longer be any of the blood of the sagamores, for my boy is the last of the Mohicans."^[3] The title is also referred to near the end of the book, when Tamenund says, "I have lived to see the last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans."^[4]

Plot, style and themes

The story is set in 1757, a period when the French and British were at war along the Canadian border; the action takes place around Glenns Falls in upstate New York. Cora and Alice Monro, daughters of Lieutenant Colonel Munro, are traveling with a column of reinforcements from Fort Edward to Fort William Henry. In the party are David Gamut the singing teacher, and Major Duncan Hayward.

The Huron scout, Magua, offers to take the Monro party by a shorter route than that which the column must take. Unknown to them, Magua - who they believe to have been expelled from his tribe in disgrace - has been reinstated as chief and is a supporter of the French cause. Magua intends to lead the party into an ambush, but is foiled when they meet Natty Bumppo, also referred to in this novel as Hawkeye, and the two Mohicans, Chingachgook and his son Uncas, on the road. Magua flees, and Bumppo and the Mohicans take the party by canoe to an island at the foot of Glenn Falls, where they are partly hidden by the falling waters.

Magua returns with his Hurons, and steals the canoe containing all the available gunpowder and ammunition. Bumppo and the Mohicans, believing that the Hurons will not kill white captives, escape down the river to fetch help. Magua finds Cora and Alice, and the two men, and lead the captives into the forest. Unnoticed, Cora blazes a trail so that Hawkeye can follow them. Heyward tries to persuade Magua to take them to Fort William Henry. Magua instead offers a choice. He will release the other three if Cora will go with him as his wife. His motive for this is revenge on Munro, rather than attraction to Cora, who refuses him. As Hayward struggles with his captors and is about to be killed, a shot from La Longue Carabine fells his attacker.

The Hurons are defeated but Magua again escapes. Hayward and Bumppo lead the Munro women to Fort William Henry, which is by now surrounded by the French. Only Hayward's fluent French allows them to pass the French piquets without detection and gain the fort.

The fort comes under siege. Munro sends Bumppo to Fort Edward to request reinforcements but, bearing General Webb's reply, he is captured by the French, who deliver him to Fort William Henry without the letter. Hayward attempts to parley with the French, but learns nothing. He then returns to Colonel Munro and announces his love for Alice. Munro reveals Cora's heritage - the Colonel's first wife was of mixed race - then gives his permission for Hayward to pay court to Alice.

The French general, Montcalm, invites Munro to a parley. He shows him Webb's letter: the English general has refused to send further reinforcements. Realising that his cause is lost, Munro reluctantly agrees to Montcalm's terms. The British soldiers, together with their wounded, and women and children, are allowed to leave the fort and withdraw. Outside the fort, the column is set upon by 2000 French allied Indian warriors, an action which Montcalm seeks to dissuade but does not attempt to stop by force. In the chaos of the massacre, Magua finds Cora and Alice, and leads them away towards the Huron village. David Gamut follows at a distance.

Three days later, Natty Bumpo and the Mohicans, Hayward and Colonel Munro follow Magua's trail. Outside the Huron village, they come across David Gamut, teaching beavers to sing psalms. The Huron have not killed him as they will not harm a madman. Gamut tells them that Alice is in the village, Cora is in another village belonging to the Delaware tribe, and Magua has gone moose hunting. Hayward disguises himself as a French medicine man and enters the village with Gamut, intending to rescue Alice. Hawkeye and Uncas set out to rescue Cora. Chingachgook remains with Colonel Munro, who has become somewhat deranged as a result of events.

Hayward's disguise is successful, but before he can find Alice, Uncas is led into the village, having been captured by the Hurons. The Mohican is made to 'run the gauntlet', being struck and insulted, until he reaches a sacred pole in the centre of the village, which acts as a form of sanctuary. Magua returns, and demands that Uncas be put to death, but does not recognise Hayward in his guise as a medicine man. Hayward is asked to cure a sick woman. As he goes to her cave, he is followed by what he believes to be a bear. The Huron believe it is their conjurer, who wears the bearskin in his role as a medicine man. In fact, the occupant of the bearskin is Natty Bumppo, who has overpowered the conjurer and left him tied up elsewhere.

Magua is suspicious and follows the party, but Hayward and Hawkeye overpower him and tie him up. They find Alice in the cave, and bring her out wrapped in blankets, telling everyone that she is the sick woman and they are taking her away from the evil spirits. Outside the camp, Bumppo sends Hayward and Alice off towards the Delaware village, and goes back to rescue Uncas.

A notable feature of the story is that Cooper uses more than one name for many of the characters and groups of people. For example, Hawkeye is also known as Natty Bumppo, La Longue Carabine, Long Rifle and Scout. Also, the Iroquois Indians are referred to as the Maquas and the Mingos. Another feature of the story is Cooper's noted detailed and verbose descriptions of places, characters, events and so on.

Characters

• Magua (ma-gwah) – the villain of the piece; a Huron chief driven from his tribe for drunkenness and later whipped by the British Army (also for drunkenness), for which he blames Colonel Munro. Also known as "Sly Fox."
• Chingachgook (chin-GATCH-gook) – last chief of the Mohican tribe; escort to the traveling Munro sisters, father to Uncas. Unami Delaware word meaning "Big Snake."^[5]
• Uncas – the son of Chingachgook and the titular "Last of the Mohicans" (meaning, the last pure-blooded Mohican born).^[6]
• Natty Bumppo/ Hawkeye – the "American hero" and escort to the Munro sisters, long-time friend of Chingachgook. Also known to the Indians and the French as "La Longue Carabine" on account of his long rifle and shooting skills.
• Cora Munro – dark-haired daughter of Colonel Munro. Her mother, who Munro met and married in the West Indies was a mulatto,^[7] half-white half-African-Caribbean. In the novel, Cora is termed a quadroon at one point.^[8].
• Alice Munro – Cora's younger, blonde half-sister, the daughter of Alice Graham, who was the love of Munro's life when he was young, but who he was able to marry only much later in life.
• Colonel Munro – the sisters' father, a British army colonel in command of Fort William Henry.
• Duncan Heyward – a British army major from Virginia who falls in love with Alice Munro.^{[9] [10]}
• David Gamut – a psalmodist (teacher of psalm singing) also known as "the singing master" due to the fact that he sang for every event.
• General Daniel Webb – Colonel Munro's commanding officer, originally stationed at Albany, who later takes command at Fort Edward (from where he cannot or will not come to Colonel Munro's aid when Fort William Henry is besieged by the French).
• General Marquis de Montcalm – the French commander-in-chief, referred to by the Hurons and other Indian allies of the French as "The great white father of the Canadas".
• Tamenund – An ancient, wise, and revered Delaware Indian sage who has outlived three generations of warriors. He is the "Sachem" of the Delaware.

Adaptations

Films

A number of films have been based on the lengthy book, with numerous cuts, compressions, and distortions occurring in the story. The American adaptations include The Last of the Mohicans (1920), starring Wallace Beery; The Last of the Mohicans (1932), starring Harry Carey; The Last of the Mohicans (1936) starring Randolph Scott; Last of the Mohicans (1963) starring Jack Taylor. Jose Marco, Luis Induni and Daniel Martin; and The Last of the Mohicans (1992), starring Daniel Day-Lewis. The 1920 film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The 1992 version, directed by Michael Mann, was (according to Mann) based more on the 1936 film version than on Cooper's book. Many of the scenes from the 1992 movie did not follow the book; in particular, some characters who survive the events of the novel die in the film, and vice versa. For example, Colonel Munro, killed in the film by Magua during the evacuation of Fort William Henry, lives on in the novel and helps search for his daughters. Hawkeye, not Chingachgook, kills Magua as shown in the film. The usual deletions from cinematic versions of The Last of the Mohicans are the extensive sections about the Indians themselves, thus confounding Cooper's purpose. Further, romantic relationships, non-existent or minimal in the novel, are generated between the principal characters, and the roles of some characters are reversed or altered, as are the events.

In Germany, Der Letzte der Mohikaner, with Béla Lugosi as Chingachgook, was the second part of the two-part Lederstrumpf film released in 1920. Based on the same series of the novels, Chingachgook die Grosse Schlange (Chingachgook the Great Serpent), starring Gojko Mitic as Chingachgook, appeared in East Germany in 1967, and became popular throughout the Eastern Bloc.

Radio

The Last of the Mohican was adapted for radio in two one-hour episodes directed by Michael Fox and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1995 (subsequently on BBC Radio 7), with Michael Fiest, Philip Franks, Helen McCrory and Naomi Radcliffe.

TV

There was a Canadian-produced TV series, Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans in 1957 with Lon Chaney, Jr..

The British Broadcasting Corporation made an eight chapter TV serial of the book in 1971, with Kenneth Ives as Hawkeye, John Abineri as Chingachgook and Philip Madoc as Magua.

Steve Forrest starred as Hawkeye with Ned Romero as Chingachgook and Don Shanks as Uncas in a 1977 film for television.

Animation

In 2004, an animated TV series version (originally named L'ultimo dei Mohicani) was produced by MondoTV and RaiFiction in association with The Animation Band and Studio Sek, consisting of 26 episodes.

Cartoon

Marvel Comics has published two versions of the story: in 1976 a one-issue version as part of their Marvel Classics Comics series (issue #13); and in 2007 a six-issue mini-series to start off the new Marvel Illustrated series.

Opera

In 1977, Lake George Opera presented an opera version The Last of the Mohicans by composer Alva Henderson.^[11]

See also

• Great Britain in the Seven Years War
• France in the Seven Years War

Notes

References

• Oberg, Michael Leroy, Uncas, First of the Mohegans, 2003, ISBN 0-8014-3877-2
• L'ultimo dei Mohicani
• Urdang, Laurence. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language. 1969. Library of Congress 68-19699.

External links

• The Last of the Mohicans at Project Gutenberg
• The Last of the Mohicans at PublicLiterature.org
• The Last of the Mohicans at American Literature
• 1971 BBC adaptation at the Internet Movie Database
• Lake George Historical Association
• Fort William Henry Museum
• Fort William Henry: The Siege & Massacre
• The Mahican Channel: Forts, Tales, & Legends (information on Fort Edward and Jane McCrea)
• Old Fort Edward driving tour directions
• 'RaiFiction'
• 'Mondo Tv presentazione'