最後のモヒカン族 — ジェームズ・フェニモア・クーパー
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 Author : James Fenimore Cooper Illustrator : N. C. Wyeth Release date : January 1, 2009 [eBook #27681] Most recently updated: May 18, 2010 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27681 Credits : Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Greg Bergquist and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net *** START OF Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected. The LAST of the MOHICANS A NARRATIVE OF 1757 by JAMES FENIMORE COOPER Illustrated by N.C. Wyeth " Mislike me not for my complexion, The shadowed livery of the burnished sun. " NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1933 Copyright, 1919, by Charles Scribner's Sons ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Uncas Slays a Deer 26 Avoiding the horns of the infuriated animal, Uncas darted to his side, and passed his knife across the throat The Battle at Glens Falls 66 Each of the combatants threw all his energies into that effort, and the result was, that both tottered on the brink of the precipice The Fight in the Forest 114 The battle was now entirely terminated, with the exception of the protracted struggle between Le Renard Subtil and Le Gros Serpent The Meeting of the Generals 166 As soon as this slight salutation had passed, Montcalm moved towards them with a quick but graceful step, baring his head to the veteran, and dropping his spotless plume nearly to the earth in courtesy The Flight Across the Lake 214 The scout having ascertained that the Mohicans were sufficient of themselves to maintain the requisite distance, deliberately laid aside his paddle, and raised the fatal rifle The Termagant 250 Throwing back her light vestment, she stretched forth her long skinny arm, in derision The Masquerader 268 The grim head fell on one side, and in its place appeared the honest, sturdy countenance of the scout The Lovers 278 Heyward and Alice took their way together towards the distant village of the Delawares The Supplicant 320 Cora had cast herself to her knees; and, with hands clenched in each other and pressed upon her bosom, she remained like a beauteous and breathing model of her sex THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS CHAPTER I "Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared: The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold: Say, is my kingdom lost?" Shakespeare. It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, that the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered before the adverse hosts could meet. A wide and apparently an impervious boundary of forests severed the possessions of the hostile provinces of France and England. The hardy colonist, and the trained European who fought at his side, frequently expended months in struggling against the rapids of the streams, or in effecting the rugged passes of the mountains, in quest of an opportunity to exhibit their courage in a more martial conflict. But, emulating the patience and self-denial of the practised native warriors, they learned to overcome every difficulty; and it would seem that, in time, there was no recess of the woods so dark, nor any secret place so lovely, that it might claim exemption from the inroads of those who had pledged their blood to satiate their vengeance, or to uphold the cold and selfish policy of the distant monarchs of Europe. Perhaps no district throughout the wide extent of the intermediate frontiers can furnish a livelier picture of the cruelty and fierceness of the savage warfare of those periods than the country which lies between the head waters of the Hudson and the adjacent lakes. The facilities which nature had there offered to the march of the combatants were too obvious to be neglected. The lengthened sheet of the Champlain stretched from the frontiers of Canada, deep within the borders of the neighboring province of New York, forming a natural passage across half the distance that the French were compelled to master in order to strike their enemies. Near its southern termination, it received the contributions of another lake, whose waters were so limpid as to have been exclusively selected by the Jesuit missionaries to perform the typical purification of baptism, and to obtain for it the title of lake "du Saint Sacrement." The less zealous English thought they conferred a sufficient honor on its unsullied fountains, when they bestowed the name of their reigning prince, the second of the house of Hanover. The two united to rob the untutored possessors of its wooded scenery of their native right to perpetuate its original appellation of "Horican." [1] Winding its way among countless islands, and imbedded in mountains, the "holy lake" extended a dozen leagues still farther to the south. With the high plain that there interposed itself to the further passage of the water, commenced a portage of as many miles, which conducted the adventurer to the banks of the Hudson, at a point where, with the usual obstructions of the rapids, or rifts, as they were then termed in the language of the country, the river became navigable to the tide. While, in the pursuit of their daring plans of annoyance, the restless enterprise of the French even attempted the distant and difficult gorges of the Alleghany, it may easily be imagined that their proverbial acuteness would not overlook the natural advantages of the district we have just described. It became, emphatically, the bloody arena, in which most of the battles for the mastery of the colonies were contested. Forts were erected at the different points that commanded the facilities of the route, and were taken and retaken, razed and rebuilt, as victory alighted on the hostile banners. While the husbandman shrank ba