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Last of the Mohicans, The
Introduction
James Fenimore Cooper
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       Introduction
       A Narrative of 1757
       INTRODUCTION
       It is believed that the scene of this tale, and most of the
       information necessary to understand its allusions, are
       rendered sufficiently obvious to the reader in the text
       itself, or in the accompanying notes. Still there is so
       much obscurity in the Indian traditions, and so much
       confusion in the Indian names, as to render some explanation
       useful.
       Few men exhibit greater diversity, or, if we may so express
       it, greater antithesis of character, than the native warrior
       of North America. In war, he is daring, boastful, cunning,
       ruthless, self-denying, and self-devoted; in peace, just,
       generous, hospitable, revengeful, superstitious, modest, and
       commonly chaste. These are qualities, it is true, which do
       not distinguish all alike; but they are so far the
       predominating traits of these remarkable people as to be
       characteristic.
       It is generally believed that the Aborigines of the American
       continent have an Asiatic origin. There are many physical
       as well as moral facts which corroborate this opinion, and
       some few that would seem to weigh against it.
       The color of the Indian, the writer believes, is peculiar to
       himself, and while his cheek-bones have a very striking
       indication of a Tartar origin, his eyes have not. Climate
       may have had great influence on the former, but it is
       difficult to see how it can have produced the substantial
       difference which exists in the latter. The imagery of the
       Indian, both in his poetry and in his oratory, is oriental;
       chastened, and perhaps improved, by the limited range of his
       practical knowledge. He draws his metaphors from the
       clouds, the seasons, the birds, the beasts, and the
       vegetable world. In this, perhaps, he does no more than any
       other energetic and imaginative race would do, being
       compelled to set bounds to fancy by experience; but the
       North American Indian clothes his ideas in a dress which is
       different from that of the African, and is oriental in
       itself. His language has the richness and sententious
       fullness of the Chinese. He will express a phrase in a
       word, and he will qualify the meaning of an entire sentence
       by a syllable; he will even convey different significations
       by the simplest inflections of the voice.
       Philologists have said that there are but two or three
       languages, properly speaking, among all the numerous tribes
       which formerly occupied the country that now composes the
       United States. They ascribe the known difficulty one people
       have to understand another to corruptions and dialects. The
       writer remembers to have been present at an interview
       between two chiefs of the Great Prairies west of the
       Mississippi, and when an interpreter was in attendance who
       spoke both their languages. The warriors appeared to be on
       the most friendly terms, and seemingly conversed much
       together; yet, according to the account of the interpreter,
       each was absolutely ignorant of what the other said. They
       were of hostile tribes, brought together by the influence of
       the American government; and it is worthy of remark, that a
       common policy led them both to adopt the same subject. They
       mutually exhorted each other to be of use in the event of
       the chances of war throwing either of the parties into the
       hands of his enemies. Whatever may be the truth, as
       respects the root and the genius of the Indian tongues, it
       is quite certain they are now so distinct in their words as
       to possess most of the disadvantages of strange languages;
       hence much of the embarrassment that has arisen in learning
       their histories, and most of the uncertainty which exists in
       their traditions.
       Like nations of higher pretensions, the American Indian
       gives a very different account of his own tribe or race from
       that which is given by other people. He is much addicted to
       overestimating his own perfections, and to undervaluing
       those of his rival or his enemy; a trait which may possibly
       be thought corroborative of the Mosaic account of the
       creation.
       The whites have assisted greatly in rendering the traditions
       of the Aborigines more obscure by their own manner of
       corrupting names. Thus, the term used in the title of this
       book has undergone the changes of Mahicanni, Mohicans, and
       Mohegans; the latter being the word commonly used by the
       whites. When it is remembered that the Dutch (who first
       settled New York), the English, and the French, all gave
       appellations to the tribes that dwelt within the country
       which is the scene of this story, and that the Indians not
       only gave different names to their enemies, but frequently
       to themselves, the cause of the confusion will be
       understood.
       In these pages, Lenni-Lenape, Lenope, Delawares, Wapanachki,
       and Mohicans, all mean the same people, or tribes of the
       same stock. The Mengwe, the Maquas, the Mingoes, and the
       Iroquois, though not all strictly the same, are identified
       frequently by the speakers, being politically confederated
       and opposed to those just named. Mingo was a term of
       peculiar reproach, as were Mengwe and Maqua in a less
       degree.
       The Mohicans were the possessors of the country first
       occupied by the Europeans in this portion of the continent.
       They were, consequently, the first dispossessed; and the
       seemingly inevitable fate of all these people, who disappear
       before the advances, or it might be termed the inroads, of
       civilization, as the verdure of their native forests falls
       before the nipping frosts, is represented as having already
       befallen them. There is sufficient historical truth in the
       picture to justify the use that has been made of it.
       In point of fact, the country which is the scene of the
       following tale has undergone as little change, since the
       historical events alluded to had place, as almost any other
       district of equal extent within the whole limits of the
       United States. There are fashionable and well-attended
       watering-places at and near the spring where Hawkeye halted
       to drink, and roads traverse the forests where he and his
       friends were compelled to journey without even a path.
       Glen's has a large village; and while William Henry, and
       even a fortress of later date, are only to be traced as
       ruins, there is another village on the shores of the
       Horican. But, beyond this, the enterprise and energy of a
       people who have done so much in other places have done
       little here. The whole of that wilderness, in which the
       latter incidents of the legend occurred, is nearly a
       wilderness still, though the red man has entirely deserted
       this part of the state. Of all the tribes named in these
       pages, there exist only a few half-civilized beings of the
       Oneidas, on the reservations of their people in New York.
       The rest have disappeared, either from the regions in which
       their fathers dwelt, or altogether from the earth.
       There is one point on which we would wish to say a word
       before closing this preface. Hawkeye calls the Lac du Saint
       Sacrement, the "Horican." As we believe this to be an
       appropriation of the name that has its origin with
       ourselves, the time has arrived, perhaps, when the fact
       should be frankly admitted. While writing this book, fully
       a quarter of a century since, it occurred to us that the
       French name of this lake was too complicated, the American
       too commonplace, and the Indian too unpronounceable, for
       either to be used familiarly in a work of fiction. Looking
       over an ancient map, it was ascertained that a tribe of
       Indians, called "Les Horicans" by the French, existed in the
       neighborhood of this beautiful sheet of water. As every
       word uttered by Natty Bumppo was not to be received as rigid
       truth, we took the liberty of putting the "Horican" into his
       mouth, as the substitute for "Lake George." The name has
       appeared to find favor, and all things considered, it may
       possibly be quite as well to let it stand, instead of going
       back to the House of Hanover for the appellation of our
       finest sheet of water. We relieve our conscience by the
       confession, at all events leaving it to exercise its
       authority as it may see fit.
       Content of Introduction [James Fenimore Cooper's novel: The Last of the Mohicans]
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