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00 - Introduction - The Last Of The Mohicans - James Cooper · Thrilling Adventures - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Introduction. It is believed that the scene of this tale,
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  Speaker 1: and most of the information necessary to understand its illusions,
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  Speaker 1: are rendered sufficiently obvious to the reader in the text
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  Speaker 1: itself or in the accompanying notes. Still, there is so
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  Speaker 1: much obscurity in the Indian traditions, and so much confusion
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  Speaker 1: in the Indian names, to render some explanation useful. Few
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  Speaker 1: men exhibit greater diversity, or, if we may so express it,
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  Speaker 1: greater antithesis of character, than the native warrior of North America.
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  Speaker 1: In war. He is daring, boastful, cunning, ruthless, self denying,
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  Speaker 1: and self devoted in peace, just generous, hospitable, revengeful, superstitious, modest,
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  Speaker 1: and commonly chased.
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  Speaker 2: These are qualities, it is true, which do not distinguish
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  Speaker 2: all alike. But they are so far the predominating traits
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  Speaker 2: of these remarkable people as to be characteristic. It is
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  Speaker 2: generally believed that the Aborigines of the American continent have
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  Speaker 2: an Asiatic origin. There are many physical as well as
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  Speaker 2: moral facts which corroborate this opinion, and some few that
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  Speaker 2: would seem to weigh against it. The color of the Indian,
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  Speaker 2: the writer believes, is peculiar to himself, and while his
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  Speaker 2: cheekbones have a very striking indication of Tartar origin, his
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  Speaker 2: eyes have not. Climate may have had great influence on
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  Speaker 2: the former, but it is difficult to see how it
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  Speaker 2: can have produced the substantial difference which exists in the latter.
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  Speaker 2: The imagery of the Indian, both in his poetry and
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  Speaker 2: his oratory, is Oriental, chastened and perhaps improved by the
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  Speaker 2: limited range of his practical knowledge. He draws his metaphors
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  Speaker 2: from the clouds, the seasons, the birds, the beast, and
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  Speaker 2: the vegetable world. In this perhaps he does no more
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  Speaker 2: than any other energetic and imaginative race would do, being
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  Speaker 2: compelled to set bounds to fancy by experience. But the
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  Speaker 2: North American Indian clothes his ideas in a dress which
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  Speaker 2: is different from that of the African, and is Oriental
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  Speaker 2: in itself. His language has the richness and sententious fullness
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  Speaker 2: of the Chinese. He will express a phrase in a word,
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  Speaker 2: and he will qualify the meaning of an entire sentence
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  Speaker 2: by a syllable. He will even convey different significations by
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  Speaker 2: the simplest inflections of the voice. Philologists have said that
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  Speaker 2: there are but two or three languages properly speaking. Among
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  Speaker 2: all the numerous tribes which formerly occupied the country that
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  Speaker 2: now composes the United States. They ascribe the known difficulty
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  Speaker 2: one people have to understand another to corruptions and dialects.
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  Speaker 2: The writer remembers to have been present at an interview
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  Speaker 2: between two chiefs of the great prairies west of the Mississippi,
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  Speaker 2: and when an interpreter was in attendance, who spoke both
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  Speaker 2: their languages, the warriors appeared to be on the most
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  Speaker 2: friendly terms, and seemingly conversed much together. Yet according to
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  Speaker 2: the account of the interpreter, each was absolutely ignorant of
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  Speaker 2: what the other said. They were of hostile tribes, brought
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  Speaker 2: together by the influence of the American government, and it
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  Speaker 2: is worthy of remark that a common policy led them
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  Speaker 2: both to adopt the same subject. They mutually exhorted each
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  Speaker 2: other to be of use in the event of the
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  Speaker 2: chances of war, throwing either of the parties into the
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  Speaker 2: hands of his enemies. Whatever may be the truth as
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  Speaker 2: respects the root and genius of the Indian tongues, it
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  Speaker 2: is quite certain that they are now so distinct in
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  Speaker 2: their words as to possess most of the disadvantages of
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  Speaker 2: strange languages, hence much of the embarrassment that has arisen
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  Speaker 2: in learning their histories, and most of the uncertainty which
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  Speaker 2: exists in their traditions. Like nations of higher pretensions, the
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  Speaker 2: American Indian gives a very different account of his own
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  Speaker 2: tribe or race from that which is given by other people.
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  Speaker 2: He is much addicted to overestimating his own perfections and
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  Speaker 2: to undervaluing those of his rival or his enemy, a
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  Speaker 2: trait which may possibly be thought corroborative of the mosaic
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  Speaker 2: account of the creation. The Whites have assisted greatly in
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  Speaker 2: rendering the traditions of the Aborigines more obscure by their
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  Speaker 2: own manner of corrupting names. Thus the term used in
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  Speaker 2: the title of this book has undergone the changes of Mehicane, Mohicans,
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  Speaker 2: and Mohegans, the latter being the word commonly used by
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  Speaker 2: the Whites. When it is remembered that the Dutch who
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  Speaker 2: first settled New York, the English, and the French all
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  Speaker 2: gave appellations to the tribes that dwelt within the country
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  Speaker 2: which is the scene of this story, and that the
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  Speaker 2: Indians not only gave different names to their enemies, but
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  Speaker 2: frequently to themselves. The cause of the confusion will be
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  Speaker 2: understood in these pages. Lenni, Lenape, Lenope, Delawares, Wapinachki, and
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  Speaker 2: Mohicans all mean the same people or tribes of the
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  Speaker 2: same stock. The Mangue, the Maquas, the Mingoes, and the Iroquois,
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  Speaker 2: though not all strictly the same, are identified frequently by
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  Speaker 2: the speakers being politically confederated and opposed to those just named.
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  Speaker 1: Mingo was a term of peculiar reproach, as were Mangue
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  Speaker 1: and Maqua. To a lesser degree. The Mohicans were the
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  Speaker 1: possessors of the country first occupied by the Europeans in
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  Speaker 1: this portion of the continent. They were consequently the first dispossessed,
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  Speaker 1: and the seemingly inevitable fate of all these people who
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  Speaker 1: disappear before the advances, or it might be termed the
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  Speaker 1: inroads of civilization, as the vender of their native forest
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  Speaker 1: falls before the nipping frost is represented as having already
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  Speaker 1: befallen them. There is sufficient historical truth in the picture
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  Speaker 1: to justify the use that has been made of it.
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  Speaker 1: In point of fact, the country which is the scene
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  Speaker 1: of the following tale has undergone as little change since
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  Speaker 1: the historical events alluded to had place as almost any
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  Speaker 1: other district of equal extent within the whole limits of
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  Speaker 1: the United States. There are fashionable and well attended watering
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  Speaker 1: places at and near the spring where Hawkeye halted to drink,
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  Speaker 1: and roads traversed the forest where he and his friends
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  Speaker 1: were compelled to journey without even a path. Glenn's has
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  Speaker 1: a large village, and while William Henry and even a
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  Speaker 1: fortress of later date are only to be traced as ruins,
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  Speaker 1: there is another village on the shores of the Horican.
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  Speaker 1: But beyond this, the enterprise and energy of a people
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  Speaker 1: who have done so much in other places have done
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  Speaker 1: little here. The whole of that wilderness in which the
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  Speaker 1: later incidents of the legend occurred is nearly a wilderness still,
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  Speaker 1: though the Red Man has entirely deserted this part of
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  Speaker 1: the state. Of all the tribes named in these pages,
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  Speaker 1: there exist only a few half civilized beings of the
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  Speaker 1: Unitas on the reservations of their people in New York.
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  Speaker 1: The rest have disappeared, either from the regions in which
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  Speaker 1: their fathers dwelt, or all together from the earth. There
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  Speaker 1: is one point on which we would wish to say
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  Speaker 1: a word. Before closing this preface, Hawkeye calls the Loch
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  Speaker 1: d Saint Sacrament the Horican. As we believe this to
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  Speaker 1: be an appropriation of the name that has its origin
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  Speaker 1: with ourselves. The time has arrived, perhaps when the fact
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  Speaker 1: should be frankly admitted. While writing this book fully a
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  Speaker 1: quarter of a century since, it occurred to us that
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  Speaker 1: the French name of this lake was too complicated, the
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  Speaker 1: American too commonplace, and the Indian too unpronounceable for either
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  Speaker 1: to be used familiarly in a work of fiction. Looking
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  Speaker 1: over an ancient map, it was ascertained that a tribe
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  Speaker 1: of Indians, called Les Horicans by the French existed in
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  Speaker 1: the neighborhood of this beautiful sheet of water. As every
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  Speaker 1: word uttered by Natty Bumpo was not to be received
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  Speaker 1: as rigid truth, we took the liber of putting the
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  Speaker 1: Horican into his mouth as the substitute for Lake George.
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  Speaker 1: The name has appeared to find favor, and all things considered,
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  Speaker 1: it may possibly be quite as well to let it stand.
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  Speaker 1: Instead of going back to the House of Hanover for
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  Speaker 1: the appellation of our finest sheet of water, we relieve
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  Speaker 1: our conscience by the confession all events, leaving it to
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  Speaker 1: exercise its authority as it may see fit. End of
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  Speaker 1: introduction