FENIMORE COOPER'S " LAST OF THE MOHICANS." 205 



from their head dresses ; and a brave show these noble 

 looking savages made, clad in all the panoply of paint 

 and feathers, with their tomahawks and scalping knives, 

 and war whoops. 



In those days Fenimore Cooper's novels were eagerly 

 read by every boy ; and though these books must of 

 course be regarded simply as romances, still in many 

 respects they gave a very good, and often faithful 

 account of the war tactics and habits of these ruthless 

 savages, who by the time the British power was well 

 established in America, had become the hereditary 

 foes of all white men. The friendly Indians were 

 simply those who, having received the only thing they 

 understand or respect, namely a stern lesson of the 

 power of England to compel them to respect the persons 

 and property of the whites, now posed as " the children " 

 of the great white chief: the settlers thus became their 

 " white brothers. " 



Nearly all the leading incidents of the story told in 

 each of Fenimore Cooper's novels, we may here remark, 

 are founded upon historical fact, and most of the chiefs 

 and Indian braves, whose exploits are recounted, are 

 also drawn from real life so is the character of his white 

 hero " Leatherstocking, " the forest ranger, and trapper. 



We can have no doubt that this latter character is 

 founded upon the history of Daniel Boone of Kentucky, * 

 a celebrated Indian fighter and frontiersman who lived 

 and flourished about i oo years ago " Nathaniel Bumpo"f 

 is in fact, an evident adaptation from the name of 



* Born in Pennyslvania in 1734 died in 1820, aged 86; spent nearly 

 all his life as a hunter and Indian fighter. Was the first white settler 

 in Kentucky, which State he founded in 1754, the first band of white 

 settlers being brought out there under his guidance. 



f The name given by Cooper to the scout "Leatherstocking." 



