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■ HARPEBS-TERRY, VIRGINIA, FEBRUiUlT 18, 1826. NO. 2.
VOX.. 3.
PUBLISHED ETERI SATURDAY EVEXIRG,
BY JOHN S. GALLAHER,
At the Office of the Virginia Free Press.
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THE NOVELIST,
REVIEW.
FROM THE SEW TO UK COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER*
rl lie “ Last of the Mohicans ” is a narra
tive work. The scene is laid in the neighborhood
of Lake George and its vicinity—a region unri
valled for romantic beauty, wildness, and subli
mity. It commences at that critical conjuncture
of the old French war, after Braddock's defeat
at the southwest, when Montcalm was approach
ing Fort William Henry, at the head of Lake
George, by the way of Lake Champlain and
Ticonderoga. The garrison, at this time, was
commanded by the brave, though unfortunate,
Col. Munro, with a small garrison, while Gen.
Webb, with a large force of provincial and re
gular troops, occupied the neighboring fortress
of Fort Edward, near the head waters of the
Hudson. The action commences at an early
hour, of a beautiful morning in the Summer of
1757, by the movement of a detachment of troops
to reinforce the garrison of William Henry.—
Two young ladies, it seems, Cora and Alice,
daughters of Col. Munro, are to make the same
journey on horseback, attended by a young,
gallant and accomplished officer, named Hey
ward. In order to avoid the delay and inconve
nience of following an army, however, the party
purpose 10 perform tne journey by a private ami
more secluded route, under the guidance of an
Indian, whose subtle and treacherous looks are
not very well liked by the ladies, although their
attendant has no suspicions. His name is Ma
gna, a Huron, whose tribe was in the service of
Montcalm, but whom he had left in consequence
of some ill-treatment, and joined the English.—
They had scarcely entered the forest,before they
were pursued and joined by a grotesque look
ing personage mounted upon a Rosinante, who
proves to be a good-natured singing master from
New-England—a Dominie Sampson in figure,
and an Ichabod Crane in manners His pre
sence is unwelcome to Heyward, but from the
oddity of his person, and the singularity of his
conversation. Alice insists on his being permit
ted to travel in their party—and the, word of
Alice is law to the young officer. At this mo
ment, Heyward “ paused and turned his head
quickly towards a thicket, and then bent his
eyes suspiciously on their guide, who continued
his steady pace in undisturbed gravity. The
young man smiled contemptuously to himself,
os he believed he had mistaken some shining
berry of the woods for the glistening eye-balls
of a prowling savage,”—but
“ The cavalcade had not long passed, before the
branches of the bushes that formed the thicket,
were cautiously moved asunder, and a human vis
age, as fiercely wild as savage art and unbridled
passions could make it, peered out on the retiring
footsteps of the travellers. A gleam of exultation
shot across the darkly painted lineaments of the in
habitant of the forest, as he traced the route of his
intended victims, who rode unconsciously onward;
the light and graceful forms of the females waving
among the trees, in the curvatures of their path,
followed at each bend by the manly figure of Hey
ward, until, finally, the shapeless person of the
singing master was concealed behind the number
less trunks of trees, that rose in dark lines in the
intermediate space.”—[28p.
Leaving the adventurous travellers, the scene
shifts to the brink of the Hudson, near a cata
ract, where wc are introduced to our old friend
Leather Stocking, of the Pioneers, (now called
Hawk-eye,) in the pride and vigor of his life, in
company and conversation with Chingachgook,
a veteran Delaware chief, of the “ Turtle ” or
der—both in the character of Scouts. Chingach
gook is eloquently holding forth upon Indian
wrongs, until he mentions the “ Salt Lake,
where the waters flow up stream in the rivers.”
which gives Hawk-eye the hint for an amusing
philosophical dissertation upon the tides and
their cause—but which is cut short by the arri
val of Heyward and his party. The plot already
begins to thicken, without compelling the read
er to wade through half a volume of prosing
matter, by way of “ clearing away the under
brush ” of the subject. The guide had lost his
way, and strong suspicions of jealousy begin to
be excited, which, after a private conversation
with the Scouts, are fully confirmed. A plan is
laid to seize the faithless Huron, but he is too
crafty for the whole—not only eluding the grasp
of Heyward, but the unerring shot of Natty
Bumpo’s rifle.
x lit Miurtiiuii ui ui« uiiuic party is now con
sidered very critical, as no doubt is entertained
by Hawk-eye, Chingachgook, and his son Un
cas, who had joined them, that the Mingoes*
were near them, and that to glut the revenge of
the Huron, who, it subsequently appears, had
been punished for some offence by Col. Munro,
they were to have been betrayed by their guide.
It is now too late for them to retrace their steps
to Fort Edward, and how to provide for their
safety is the next object. For this purpose, in
the twilight the horses are led into the river, and
secreted behind s.ome cragged rocks, while the
ladies with Heyward and David Gamut, are ta
ken into a canoe, and transported to a rocky ca
vern, amidst the tumbling waters of the roaring
cataract. This cavern is none other than that
so well known in the island of rock against which
to this day the waters of the Hudson foam and
dash, as they pass from the irregular falls of
Glenn. The succeeding chapter contains a high
ly wrought night-scene in the cavern, and an
excellent description of this irregular, singular,
and picturesque cataract, where the island
above mentioned—now degraded by a bridge
and toll house—has evidently been worn by the
* The hostile Indians arc called Ilurons, Mingoes,
Maquas and Iroquois, indifferently, as occasion re
quires.
rushing of the waters upon the limestone of un
equal texture. Torches are lighted which gleam
wbldly and fitfully around the gloom and among
the fissures of the rock—some venison is broiled
for supper, and David is devoutly closing the
proceedings of the evening by singing a divine
song from Strcnhold and Hopkins, in which he i
joined by the ladies—when they are interrupted
by an appalling noise from without, believed by
Hawk-eye and the Indians to be supernat ival.
The strange noise is repeated, and sounds thro’
j the inmost recesses of the cavern. Hawk-eye
j still did not understand it, and to the inquiry
J of Cora, who was resolute and unappalled, he
| says:—
j “Lady,” returned the scout, solemnly, “I hate
listened to all the sounds of the woods for thir' v
years, as a man will listen, whose life and death de
pends so often on the quickness of his ears. There
is no whine of the panther ; no whistle of the cat
bird ; nor any invention of the devilish Mingoes,
that can cheat me ! I have heard the forests moan
like mortal men in their affliction ; often, and again,
have I listened to the wind playing its music in the
branches of the girdled trees ; and I have heard the
lightning cracking in the air, like the snapping of
blazing brush, as it spitted forth sparks and forked
flames ; but never have I thought that 1 heard more
than the pleasure of Him, wiio sported with the
things of his hand. Hut neither the Mohicans, nor
I, who am a white man w ithout a cross, cun explain
the cry just heard. We, therefore, believe it a sign
given for our good.”—[p. 8r.
Heyward, Hawk-eye, and (he Indians, leave
die cavern to reconnoitre—the noise is repeated,
at which all are alarmed, save the former, who
remarks:—“ Tis the horrid shriek that a horse
w ill give in his agony ; oftener drawn from him
in pain, though sometimes in his terror. Mv
charger is either a prey to the beasts of the- f.j
rest, or he sees his danger without the power i i
4'oid it.'1 After tins discovery the. ladies p
tire to rest upon a bed oi leaves and sassafras, m
au inner cavern, and the men mount guard
among; the rocks. At the first glimpse of dar
Hawk-eye admonishes the party to pirpare lor
instant departure for Fort Edward; hut before
they are well awake, the woods resound with
the demoniac yell of the Maquas, by whom it i
but too evident they are now surrounded. A
shower of bullets succeeds, by one of which tin
man of psalmody is slightly wounded. Tin
scout brings one of the foe down, and they re
treat but to gather fresh strength and r< new tin
attack. I he watchful eye of the scout perceives
that five of them have attempted to reach tin
upper part ol the island, or the narrow- rock
which still connected it with the cataract, In
swimming to it. One of them missed his point,
and was tumbled headlong amidst the rocks and
whirlpools below. The lour others succeed in
effecting their landing—the scout and I ncas
bring down two with their rides, and with the
other two the former and Heyward are conip< 1
led to grapple in the fearful strife. After an oh
stinate and terrific conflict, one of the foe is
killed, outright, and the other hurled into the
abyss below . 1 lie battle is taken up at this point
in the chapter w hich we published last wcek -
Finally, after eshaustiug their ammunition, and
at the earnest entreaties of Cora, Hawk eve and
the Mohicans make, their e-rape by dropping
into the stream, and floating Alentry awavf-o