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.

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