Chapter
III
The scene shifts to the woods a few miles west of the traveling
party. An Indian warrior named Chingachgook is in earnest conversation
with a white hunter and scout named Hawkeye. They discuss their
respective ancestries and Indian history. Chingachgook says
that the his tribe, the Mohicans, were unified until the white
man came. The Dutch introduced alcohol (“fire-water”)
to his people, and then they began to lose their land. Now he
calls his son, Uncas, the last of the Mohicans. At that moment,
Uncas comes and sits with them. He says that their ancient enemies,
the Maquas, are in the woods. The Maquas are also referred to
as the Iroquois, and they are in alliance with the French. Hawkeye
then spots a deer, but leaves it to Uncas to kill. Uncas then
puts his ear to the ground and says he hears the horses of white
men approaching.
Chapter IV
Hawkeye hails the party of Heyward and the ladies as they approach.
It transpires that they are lost. Magua, the Indian guide, has
led them astray. When Hawkeye hears that the guide is a Huron
he is immediately suspicious. His suspicions are not allayed
by the fact that Magua is supposedly an ally of the English.
Hawkeye tells Heyward that they have traveled only a few miles
from Fort Edward. Because he suspects Magua of treachery, he
offers to shoot him in the leg, but Heyward stops him, saying
that he is not certain of the man’s guilt. Heyward then
decides that he will apprehend Magua himself, but Magua becomes
suspicious and runs off into the thicket. Uncas and Chingachgook
pursue him; there is a shot.
Analysis
Chapters three and four complete the introductions of the major
characters. It is clear that Hawkeye, although he has certain
ineradicable prejudices against Indians, nonetheless understands
and admires them. He insists that he is completely white, but
that does not mean he always defends white customs and society.
In Chapter III, for example, he decries the practice in white
society of recording history in books, rather than telling it
orally in the village, as is the Indian custom. He prefers the
latter because falsehoods can more easily be challenged that
way, and everyone can stay informed. In contrast, in white society,
many people do not read books, so are ignorant of the history
of their people. At the end of Chapter III, Hawkeye again emphasizes
that he is a “man without a cross,” i.e. his blood
is entirely of the white race, even though he has lived with
the Indians long enough that such a “cross” might
be expected. This reveals Hawkeye as a man who in a sense straddles
two cultures, the English-American and the Indian. It is a sign
of the possibility of the creative intermixing of different
cultures.
Chingachgook’s
regretful story about the decline and imminent extinction of
the Mohican tribe can be taken in a wider sense to apply to
the entire Indian race, since it foreshadows by only a few generations
the suppression of the various Indian cultures and ways of life
throughout North America. The novel then becomes in part a record,
even a lament, of the extinction of the native culture.
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