Summary: Chapter VII
Hawkeye believes the group has heard cries of warning,
and the party hurries out of the cave. As Heyward describes the
loveliness of the natural landscape, another shrieking cry pierces
the calm. Heyward then realizes that the cry is the sound of a horse
screaming in fear, perhaps because wolves have approached it. The
howl of a nearby wolf proves Heyward right. The group hears the
wolves recede into the forest as if scared off, which makes Hawkeye
think that Indian enemies are nearby. Obeying Hawkeye’s confident instructions,
the group hides in the deep moon shadows, and all but Hawkeye and
the Mohicans soon fall asleep.
Summary: Chapter VIII
Just before dawn, the Iroquois attack with rifles and
wound Gamut. Chingachgook returns fire. Heyward takes Cora, Alice,
and Gamut to the protection of the outer cave. Hawkeye fights valiantly throughout
the day. He believes their only hope is to defend the rock until
Munro sends reinforcements. Dawn approaches, and a long, quiet watch
begins. Hawkeye and Heyward hide in the thickets to monitor the
enemy. Hawkeye detects four Indians swimming dangerously close to
the rock. Hawkeye calls to Uncas for assistance, and another battle
begins. When an Indian wounds Heyward slightly, firing
down from an oak tree, Hawkeye retaliates with his rifle, which
he calls Killdeer. However, the shot only wounds the Indian.
Hawkeye’s first impulse is to show no mercy, but he uses
his last bullet and gunpowder to kill the Indian and end his suffering.
Uncas looks for more ammunition but discovers it has been stolen
by the Iroquois. Outnumbered and outgunned, the group feels defeated until
Cora suggests a plan. She proposes that the men escape down the
river. The Indians will not kill the women, and the men can rescue
them later. Chingachgook slips into the river and swims away, followed
immediately by Hawkeye, who must leave behind his rifle. Though
Uncas does not wish to leave Cora, she urges him to go to her father
as her personal messenger, at which point he too slips into the
river. Heyward refuses to go, saying that his presence may preserve
the safety of the girls.
Summary: Chapter IX
Heyward, Cora, Alice, and the wounded Gamut
huddle together in the deepest part of the cave, awaiting their
capture. Outside, Indian voices shout, “La Longue Carabine!” (The
Long Rifle), a name Heyward recognizes. He realizes that Hawkeye
is the famous hunter and scout called La Longue Carabine, celebrated throughout
the English army. The Indians enter the cavern, but they do not
see the group hidden behind a blanket. The Indians express outrage
at the discovery of their dead allies and frustration that they
do not see comparable numbers of dead enemies. The English party
begins to think they will escape, when suddenly Magua discovers
them. Heyward tries to shoot Magua, but he misses. As a result of
this failed assassination, the whites become prisoners, dragged
outside by the Hurons.
Summary: Chapter X
Though the Hurons at first threaten to kill
Heyward, they detain him for questioning. Heyward relies upon Magua
for interpretation and finally convinces his captors that Hawkeye
and his Mohican allies have escaped. This exasperating knowledge nearly
causes the angry Hurons to murder Alice. Before violence occurs,
however, the Huron chief calls a tribal council and decides to move
the entire party to the south bank of the river. While Magua takes
charge of the white prisoners, Heyward tells Magua that he believes
Magua sought to deceive the Huron nation for private gain. Though
he does not deny Heyward’s allegations, Magua does not admit to
them either. Meanwhile, Cora attempts to leave behind a trail of
signals, but the Indians discover her attempts and threaten her.
Magua silently guides the prisoners to a steep hill, perfect for
both defense and attack.
Summary: Chapter XI
Heyward tries again to convert Magua to their
side by asking him to spare the women for the sake of their father,
but Magua shows signs of intensifying malice. He quickly demands
a private caucus with Cora and reveals that he seeks revenge on
Colonel Munro and rejoices in the kidnapping of Munro’s daughters.
The traitorous Indian explains that he was once a chief, but his
tribe drove him out when he learned to drink firewater. He alleges
that Colonel Munro once had him whipped for coming into camp drunk
and now wishes to marry Cora in order to revenge himself on Munro.
Magua promises he will release Alice if Cora agrees to the marriage. Cora
refuses, and Magua exhorts the other Hurons to torture the prisoners.
The Hurons ties their captives to stakes. When Magua cuts off some
of Alice’s curls with his hatchet, Heyward breaks his bonds and
attacks an Indian. The Hurons are about to kill Heyward when suddenly
the crack of a rifle pierces the air, and Heyward’s assailant falls
to the ground dead.
Analysis: Chapters VII–XI
Cooper is not interested in producing simple
oppositions between Indians and whites, or in drawing stereotypes.
Although he classifies people by race, he also classifies them by
those who respect the land and those who believe they can dominate
the land. Hawkeye is a hybrid white figure who has an Indian’s sympathy
for nature and a white man’s desire to introduce his own culture.
Heyward does not have great knowledge of the forest, but he does
have good instincts for it. Although he does not realize that the
wolf’s retreating cries signify the presence of Indians, he does
correctly guess that wolves have caused the screams of the horses.
Heyward has a knowledge of horses, but his white man’s knowledge
is ultimately irrelevant to the survival of the group. Only a figure
sensitive to the rhythms of the forest, like Uncas, can keep the
group safe.
Cora also defies stereotypes with her cunning and resolve.
She is not the stereotypical sentimental figure of a doomed white
beloved that often appeared in nineteenth-century novels. Rather,
among all the group members, including the men, only Cora refuses
to admit defeat. Clever and strategic, she concocts a plan that
involves putting herself at risk. She likely realizes that turning
herself over to the Indians, according to the rhetoric of the day,
means risking rape and death, but she insists on the plan despite
its dangers. However, Cooper shows the limits of women’s freedoms.
Although Cora constructs the plan, which gives her control, the
outlines of the plan force her to relinquish control. By turning
herself over to the Iroquois, Cora leaves the control of her original
protectors only to put herself under the control of a new set of
men.
In his exchanges with both Heyward and Cora, Magua reveals that
revenge for an offense, not arbitrary malice, motivates him. Whereas
in the opening chapters Cooper presents a positive picture of interracial
romance, here he depicts the kind of stereotypically evil interracial
romance feared by nineteenth-century American men. While Uncas desires
a loving bond with Cora, Magua wants to punish Cora, and through
her punish Cora’s father. Magua also seems to understand the racism
of the whites; his behavior may be seen as stemming in part from
his anger at that racism. He understands that for a man like Munro,
the thought of his daughter having sex with an Indian man would
be an unthinkable horror. Both Hawkeye and Magua understand both
Indians and whites, but while Hawkeye turns his knowledge to mutual
advantage, Magua turns his to angry revenge and a provocation of
more racial hatred.
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