The Last of the Mohicans (book summary)

The Last of the Mohicans

by: James Fenimore

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.

When Cora asks about the motive behind his hatred of Munro, Magua tells her that Munro once fed him 'fire-water' (whiskey) leading him to be expelled from the Huron tribe. He subsequently joined the Mohawks and went to war against the Hurons on the British side. Magua became addicted to whiskey and was punished by Munro for drunken behavior; Munro tied him to a post and whipped him. Magua then left the Mohawks to rejoin the Hurons, but has never forgiven Munro for the humiliation. When Cora again refuses Magua's demands he orders his men to tie up and torment the captors. As Heyward struggles with his captors and is about to be killed, a shot from La Longue Carabine (Hawkeye) fells his attacker.

Hawkeye and his compantions come out of the woods to attack the Hurons. The Hurons are defeated but Magua again escapes. Heyward and Bumppo lead the Munro women to Fort William Henry, which is by now surrounded by the French. Only Heyward'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. Heyward 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 Heyward 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, Heyward 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 Lenni Lenape (Delaware) tribe, and Magua has gone moose hunting. Heyward 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.

Heyward'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. Heyward 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 Heyward 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 Heyward and Alice off towards the Delaware village, and goes back to rescue Uncas, which he does with the help of David Gamut. Leaving Gamut behind dressed as Uncas, Hawkeye dresses in Gamut's clothes and Uncas wears the bearskin, and the two of them flee to the Delaware village.

The Hurons discover Gamut and realize that Uncas has escaped. Later they find Magua tied up in the cave where the woman is already dead.

Magua tells them everything about Hawkeye's and Heyward's deception, enraging the other Hurons, who vow revenge against Hawkeye and his companions and quickly reaffirm Magua as their chief.

Magua then makes his way to the Delaware village, and demands his prisoners. At the council of chiefs, the venerable sage Tamenund is called on to make the final judgement. He asks which of the prisoners is La Longue Carabine, and Heyward claims that it is he, so a shooting match is organised at which Hawkeye outshoots the Major. Tamenund is initially minded to give judgement to Magua, despite Cora's pleas for mercy. Uncas then speaks in a way that the listeners find high-handed, so they tear off his shirt in order to torture him, revealing that he has a sacred sea turtle, totem of the Lenni Lenape, tattooed on his chest.

Realising that he is in the presence of the last descendent of a great chief, Tamenund accedes to all that Uncas asks, except that he says he cannot free Cora as it was Magua who brought her to the village. Magua reluctantly agrees to Uncas's demands but announces his intention to keep Cora as his wife, and leaves the village. According to custom, Tamenund has agreed to give Magua a three hour head start, so Uncas leads them in a ritual dance while they wait. Just as the Delawares are preparing for war, David Gamut enters the village. He has seen Magua take Cora back to the Huron village and hide her in the cave where Alice was hidden. With that in mind, Hawkeye, Uncas, Heyward, and the Delaware warriors set out into the forest to fight the Hurons.

A battle breaks out between the Hurons and the Delaware, who are in three parties - one led by Hawkeye and Heyward, one by Uncas, and one by Chingachgook and Munro. The Hurons are gradually pushed back to their village as the Delawares press their attack with the three parties. Magua escapes with Cora and two of his warriors, and they seek to flee by a mountain path which has a precipitous drop on one side, but Cora stops on a rocky ledge and refuses to go further. Magua threatens to stab her, but is unable or unwilling to go through with his threat. Uncas, who has caught the party up, leaps from a higher ledge but lands flat on his face and is stabbed in the back by Magua. The warrior holding Cora stabs her. Uncas rises to his feet and slays her murderer, and is then killed by Magua. The Huron is finally killed by a shot from La Longue Carabine and falls over the precipice.

The novel concludes with a lengthy account of the funerals of Uncas and Cora. The Lenni Lenape sing that Uncas and Cora will marry in the afterlife. Hawkeye does not believe this, but he renews his friendship with Chingachgook. Tamenund foresees that "The pale-faces are masters of the earth, and the time of the red-

N\A 29/11/2010

Ενότητα: Book Summaries part 1

Πηγή: Wikipedia