Leatherstocking Literary Trail: Site 3

Leatherstocking Literary Trail: Site 3. . , Coopers Cave , When he traveled to this area in 1824, James Fenimore Cooper was impressed by the cave behind the Hudson River at Glens Falls. In the early chapters of his classic 1826 American novel, The Last of the Mohicans, colonial scout Hawkeye, the Mohicans - Chingachgook and his son, Uncas - use the cave to hide the party they rescued from the villain Magua and his force of Huron warriors. The rescued party includes British Major Heyward, "psalm singer" David Gamut, and Alice and Cora Munro., The Hurons discover the group and a battle ensues. After their canoe and ammunition are stolen, Hawkeye and the Mohicans escape by swimming downstream. The rest of the party is captured and taken south to a spot near modern-day Ballston Spa. Along the way, "Cora alone remembered the injunctions of the scout; she stretched forth her arm to bend aside the twigs" (Cooper, Last of the Mohicans, Scribner's 1919 N.C. Wyeth Edition, page 96) to allow Hawkeye and the Mohicans to follow her trail. , [ Drawing Captions, top left and going counterclockwise: ] , - The cave at the falls inspired James Fenimote Cooper’s story. A traveling companion, British Lord Edward Stanley wrote, "Cooper … was much struck with the scenery which he had not seen before; and exclaimed, ‘I must place one of my old Indians here.’”, - The waterways of the upper Hudson River, Lake George (known by the French as Lac du Saint Sacrament) and Lake Champlain were heavily fortified by the English and the French in the mid-1700s, - Uncas, Hawkeye and Chingachgook search for the captives. , >br> - "Each of the combatants threw all his energies into that effort and the result was that both tottered on the brink of the precipice." (Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, Scribner's 1919 .C. Wyeth Edition, page 68).