206 THE STORY OF CORA. 



Boone, used by Cooper for that of his principal hero. 



Those of our readers who have read " The Last of 

 the Mohicans " (which is generally accounted the best 

 of Cooper's tales of the frontier), will doubtless at once 

 recognize it. Now the Mohicans, an Indian tribe long 

 since extinct, were a warlike and at one time a very 

 troublesome people, who in former days inhabited a 

 great part of the State of Connecticut and portions of 

 the State of New York. The story of Colonel Munro, 

 and his daughters Alice and Cora, are also adap- 

 tations from real life, the former being a Scotch officer 

 in the service of George II., and who was the British 

 Commander of Fort William Henry, in the State of New 

 York, during the siege and sacking of that post by 

 the French under Montcalm in 1757 and we have no 

 doubt that the materials for the story of the girls are 

 drawn from the historical accounts of the adventures 

 which befell Jemima, the daughter of Daniel Boone, 

 and two other girls, Betsy and Fanny Callaway, who 

 were captured and carried off by Indians, on July 14, 

 1776, from Boonesborough in Kentucky, much as de- 

 scribed in the pages of this novel. The Indians Saga- 

 more, Chingatchcook, Uncas, * and Le Renard Subtile, 

 are also all taken in the same way from real life, 

 and were all celebrated Indian chiefs, who in their 

 day were prominent warriors of various forest tribes. 



It may be interesting to give a short retrospect of 

 the Story of Cora, one of the heroines of "The Last of 

 the Mohicans." Details which have come under our 



* A Mohican Chief and a friend of the white man, who died about 

 1686 and was buried near Norwich (Conn.), where a monument was 

 erected to his memory by the Americans in 1842. (See Brit. Musm. 

 Discourse delivered by Wm. Leete Stone, on the occasion of unveiling 

 the monument, July 4th 1842, publ. at New York 1842, I2mo). 



