Summary: Chapter I
The novel takes place during the third year of the French
and Indian War. The narrator explains that the land itself, populated
by hostile Indian tribes, is as dangerous as the war. The armies
do not want to battle, and the unpredictability of the terrain unnerves
them. The French general Montcalm has allied himself with several
of the Indian tribes native to America and is moving a large army
south in an attempt to take Fort William Henry from the British.
Magua, an Indian scout, intercepts the information about the impending
attack on the fort and relays it to the British General Webb, to
whom he is loyal. Webb decides to send reinforcements to Fort William
Henry to help Colonel Munro, who commands the fort. Shortly after
the reinforcements leave for Fort William Henry, Webb dispatches
the young Major Heyward to accompany Alice and Cora Munro, the colonel’s
daughters, who insist upon visiting their father. As they leave,
an Indian runner dashes by them. Alice watches him with mixed admiration
and repulsion.
Summary: Chapter II
The Indian runner, whose name is Magua, agrees to guide
Heyward and the young women to Fort William Henry by means of a
shortcut known only to the Indians. Soon after they leave Fort Edward,
they meet a stranger. We later learn his name is David Gamut. Gamut
is a psalmodist, a man who worships by singing Old Testament psalms.
The mincing and dainty Gamut is out of place in the menacing forest.
He left Fort Edward and lost his way. He announces his intention
to join the group. Annoyed at Gamut’s presumption, Heyward nevertheless
shows interest in Gamut’s claim to be an instructor, and asks Gamut
if he is a mathematician or a scientist. Gamut replies humbly that
he knows only the limited insights of psalmody, the then-popular
practice of setting biblical teachings to music.
Cora is amused by the stranger. Gamut joins their party
and sings a religious song native to New England. He behaves seriously
and venerably, as though delivering a sermon, and accompanies his psalmody
with dramatic hand gestures. Magua eventually interrupts this performance,
muttering a few words to Heyward, who translates his words to the
others: they must be silent since hostile Indian tribes fill the
forest.
Major Heyward quickly and confidently scans the forest, pleased
that he sees no sign of Indians. His unfamiliarity with the forest
makes him unable to see what the trees hide, and he does not notice
a wild-eyed Indian peering out at them through the branches.
Analysis: Chapters I–II
The opening two chapters of The Last of the Mohicans establish war,
both historical and imagined, as the novel’s foundation. Cooper
uses historical facts, rooting his narrative in actual, lived events in
the colonial history of the United States. However, he also roots his
narrative in his own imagined war. Cooper wants to emphasize the
tensions between mankind and the land, between natives and colonists,
and between nature and culture. He does this by using history as
a frame and filling that frame with fictional events.
Cooper’s characters illustrate the various ways that national
cultures interact. The chronology of the first two chapters foreshadows the
eventual colonial domination over the Indian frontier. In Chapter
I, friendly and hostile Indian tribes rule the terrain that so daunts the
whites. In Chapter II, Gamut gives a sophisticated biblical performance,
ignoring the Indians as he sings. Although Cooper gestures at the
eventual dominance of the whites, he also makes the white Gamut
a figure of fun. Gamut behaves prissily in the menacing forest and
then puts the lives of his companions at risk. Even Gamut’s biblical
knowledge does not dignify him; he is identified as a New England
religious psalmodist only because Magua, the Indian informant, is
familiar with psalmody. Heyward, although less foolish than Gamut,
also acquits himself badly. He has a greatly inflated sense of his
own skill and wrongly determines that no danger exists after taking
a cursory glance around the woods.
