42 pages • 1 hour read
James Fenimore CooperThe Last of the Mohicans
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1826A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 9-10 Summary
After all the action, things are strangely quiet, but Uncas has disappeared. The narrator describes the quiet landscape and peaceful animals. Gamut, who is agitated, begins to play the song “Isle of Wight” on his pipes, while Alice and others listen. They hear the noise of Magua’s group approaching. Following on Cora’s plan laid at the end of Chapter 8, Bumppo and the Mohicans escape and leave the others; they realize that Magua will not kill Heyward, Gamut, Alice, and Cora instantly, as he would Bumppo, Chingachgook, and Uncas.
Native American warriors, including Magua, are looking for Bumppo, whom they call “La Longue Carabine” (French for “The Long Rifle”). Heyward explains that Magua must have betrayed them. The warriors capture Heyward, Cora, Alice, and Gamut, leading them away from William Henry. Cora attempts to leave a trail for Bumppo, Chingachgook, and Uncas to follow by breaking branches as she passes them. However, she is caught and forced to stop.
Chapters 11-12 Summary
The captives watch a group of Native Americans eat raw deer. The narrator explains that Magua became an alcoholic after being introduced to it by white people, and that Colonel Munro, Cora’s and Alice’s father, had humiliatingly punished him for drinking in the past, when Magua (a Huron) was living among the Mohawk tribe. Magua is bitterly resentful. Cora asks Magua what he wants, and he replies that he wants Munro’s daughters to live with him. When Cora refuses, Magua throws his tomahawk through the air, cutting off part of Alice’s hair. Heyward begins to fight back and then a shot from afar kills the native he’s fighting with.
The Native American warriors are shocked, realizing that Bumppo and his friends are attempting to rescue Heyward and the others. The leader of the captors goes after Chingachgook with a knife, and brutal hand-to-hand combat again ensues. Another tomahawk is thrown at Cora, which grazes her and loosens the bond which held her. She takes the chance to set Alice free, but one of the warriors manages to grab Cora by the hair. He taunts her and is ready to scalp her, but Uncas stops him, and the warrior is killed. Chingachgook nearly stabs Magua, but the betrayer rolls away unharmed. Continuing on, they come across a stream that has been muddied, and Bumppo criticizes the natives for it. Heyward asks if Bumppo and the others saw he, Alice, Cora, and Gamut being captured. Bumppo explains that Uncas was able to track them down by following their horse tracks.
Chapter 13 Summary
The reunited group continues their way through the wilderness. As the day ends, they know they need to stop. They find a ruined blockhouse and decide to pass the first part of the night there, though they plan to continue as soon as the moon rises. Bumppo explains that it was once the site of a great battle, and there are Mohawk graves there. He also describes the history and treaties between the Mohicans and the Delaware.
They prepare their camp while Chingachgook keeps watch. Heyward dreams he is a knight. The moon rises, and they believe it is time to go. However, they sense a presence in the area and see about 20 of the enemy warriors mingling nearby. Bumppo and the others consider the possibility of a reverse ambush, but then the enemies, spooked by the Mohawk graves, leave the scene. They go to hide in the woods.
Chapter 14 Summary
The group continues on, traveling through the water to avoid leaving a trail. Bumppo explains they are nearing William Henry. He gives a history lesson about the area, touching on the Delaware graves at the abandoned blockhouse, which marks the site of a battle between the Mohawks and Mohicans, as well as a body of water called the “bloody pond” on account of bloodshed in the battle in the area.
They are stopped by a French sentry, who fails to realize that the party is British because Cora and Heyward speak French, and the sentry is distracted by the presence of the women. Chingachgook scalps the Frenchman at the bloody pond. Sticking to shadows and rocky areas, the group continues until they can see William Henry. They see the fort is encircled by a force of ten thousand French soldiers laying siege. The group has another run-in with a Frenchman, who recognizes them as enemy forces. Shots are fired, and in the confusion the group runs into the English forces, and Cora and Alice are reunited with their father, Colonel Munro
Chapters 9-14 Analysis
After the previous chapters’ drama, culminating in a skirmish with Magua’s group, The Last of the Mohicans turns to more peaceful themes. There is even a bit of humor; as the beleaguered group catches some rest, the narrator notes Gamut’s snoring, “sounds that would have shocked his delicate organs in more wakeful moments” (75). Yet these moments of calm are only a brief lull before the next instance of drama, when Heyward, Cora, Alice, and Gamut are captured for the first time by Magua’s group.
The capture is brief, but it foreshadows the future conflicts that come later in the novel. The incident also spurs the narrator to elaborate on contrasts between the white settlers and the Native Americans of Magua’s group. While Chingachgook and Uncas are respected allies of Bumppo’s group, Magua and his followers are viewed as savage enemies, such as when they are observed eating raw deer. The narrator also implies that the Native Americans are superstitious. For instance, when staying in the abandoned blockhouse, Bumppo has the opportunity to express his intelligence and knowledge when he explains the history of the battle that took place at the site and the presence of Mohawk graves. Magua’s followers, however, are presented as frightened by the very same graves.
At the same time, the narrator does not wholeheartedly adhere to stereotypes and caricatures of the Native Americans. Instead, for instance, readers develop some sympathy for Magua, who they learn has become an alcoholic as a result of white colonial influence: “Was it the fault of Le Renard that his head was not made of rock?,” he asks, “Who gave him the fire-water? who made him a villain? ’Twas the pale faces, the people of your own color” (121). Moreover, when Uncas’s tracking abilities are praised, it is only one example of many favorable impressions of Native Americans in the novel.
Drama reemerges in full force as more hand-to-hand combat breaks out when Bumppo leads the rescue of his captured friends. The conflict itself is another opportunity for the narrator to comment on the relations between the whites and the Native Americans, as the narrator notes, “[a]t length, the toughened sinews of the white man prevailed over the less practice lens of the native” (82). Extraordinarily tense moments again are part of the action-packed narrative, as Cora is nearly scalped, and Magua escapes unscathed. This tension is released when Cora and Alice are dramatically reunited with their father, Colonel Munro.
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By James Fenimore Cooper
