The Last of the Mohicans: Read and Watch

The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757

In 1757, Cora and Alice Munro, daughters of Lieutenant Colonel Munro, are traveling with Major Duncan Heyward from Fort Edward to Fort William Henry, where Munro is in command, and acquire another companion in David Gamut, a singing teacher. They are guided through the forest by Magua, a native who leads them through a shortcut unaccompanied by the New York militia. Heyward is dissatisfied with Magua's shortcut, and the party roams unguided and finally join Natty Bumppo, known as Hawk-eye, a scout for the British, and his two Mohican friends, Chingachgook and his son Uncas. Heyward becomes suspicious of Magua, and Hawk-eye and the Mohicans agree with his suspicion that Magua is a Huron scout secretly allied with the French. Upon being exposed, Magua escapes, and believing (correctly) that Magua will return with Huron reinforcements, Hawk-eye and the Mohicans lead their new companions to a hidden cave on an island in a river. They are attacked there by the Hurons, Gamut is wounded by a stray shot and their ammunition is soon exhausted. Knowing they will be killed instantly but that the British party will make valuable captives, Hawk-eye and the Mohicans escape, with a promise to return for their companions.
Magua and the Hurons capture Heyward, Gamut, and the Munro sisters. Magua admits that he is seeking revenge against Cora's father, Colonel Munro, for turning him into an alcoholic with whiskey (causing him to be temporarily cast out of the Hurons) and then whipping him at a post for drunken behavior. He offers to spare the party if Cora becomes his wife, but she refuses. Upon a second refusal, he sentences the prisoners to death. Hawk-eye and the Mohicans rescue all four and lead them to a dilapidated building that was involved in a battle between the Huron and the British years before. They are nearly attacked again, but the Hurons leave the area, rather than disturb the graves of their tribesmen.
The next day, Hawk-eye leads the party to Fort William Henry, past a siege by the French army. Munro sends Hawk-eye to Fort Edward for reinforcements, but he is captured by the French, who deliver him to Fort William Henry without the letter. Heyward returns to Colonel Munro and announces his love for Alice, and Munro gives his permission for Heyward's courtship. The French general, Montcalm, invites Munro to a parley and shows him General Webb's letter, in which the British general has refused to send reinforcements. At this, Munro agrees to Montcalm's terms: that the British soldiers, together with their women and children, must leave the fort and withdraw from the war for eighteen months. Outside the fort, the column of British evacuees is betrayed and ambushed by 2,000 Huron warriors; in the ensuing massacre, Magua kidnaps Cora and Alice, and leads them toward the Huron village, with David Gamut in pursuit.
Hawk-eye, the Mohicans, Heyward, and Colonel Munro survive the massacre and cross a lake to intercept Magua's trail. They encounter a band of Hurons by the lakeshore, who spot the travelers. A canoe chase ensues, in which the rescuers reach land before the Hurons can kill them, and eventually follow Magua to the Huron village. Here, they find Gamut (earlier spared by the Hurons as a harmless madman), who says that Alice is held in this village and Cora in one belonging to the Lenape (Delaware).

Disguised as a French medicine man, Heyward enters the Huron village with Gamut to rescue Alice; Hawk-eye and Uncas set out to rescue Cora, and Munro and Chingachgook remain in safety. Uncas is taken prisoner by the Hurons and left to starve when he withstands torture, and Heyward fails to find Alice. A Huron warrior asks Heyward to heal his lunatic wife, and both are stalked by Hawk-eye in the guise of a bear. They enter a cave where the madwoman is kept, and the warrior leaves. Soon after the revelation of his identity to Heyward, Hawk-eye accompanies him, and they find Alice. They are discovered by Magua, but Hawk-eye overpowers him, and they leave him tied to a wall. Thereafter Heyward escapes with Alice, while Hawk-eye remains to save Uncas. Gamut convinces a Huron to allow him and his magical bear (Hawk-eye in disguise) to approach Uncas, and they untie him. Uncas dons the bear disguise, Hawk-eye wears Gamut's clothes, and Gamut stays in a corner mimicking Uncas. Uncas and Hawk-eye escape by traveling to the Delaware village where Cora is being held, just as the Hurons suspect something is amiss and find Magua tied up in the cave. Magua tells his tribe the full story behind Heyward and Hawk-eye's deceit before assuming leadership of the Hurons, who vow revenge.
Uncas and Hawk-eye are being held prisoner with Alice, Cora, and Heyward by the Delawares. Magua enters the Delaware village and demands the return of his prisoners. During the ensuing council meeting, Uncas is revealed to be a Mohican, a once-dominant tribe related to the Delawares. Tamenund, the sage of the Delawares, sides with Uncas and frees the prisoners, except Cora, whom he awards to Magua according to tribal custom. This makes a showdown between the Hurons and Delawares inevitable, but to satisfy laws of hospitality, Tamenund gives Magua a three-hour head start before pursuit. While the Delawares are preparing for battle, David Gamut escapes the Huron village and tells his companions that Magua has positioned his men in the woods between the Huron and Delaware villages. Undeterred, Uncas, Hawk-eye, Heyward, Gamut, and the Delawares march into the woods to fight the Hurons.
In the ensuing battle, the Delawares are joined by Chingachgook and Munro, and ultimately vanquish the Hurons and capture their village, but Magua escapes with Cora and two other Hurons; Uncas, Hawk-eye, Heyward, and Gamut pursue them up to a high mountain. In a fight at the edge of a cliff, a Huron kills Cora, Gamut kills another Huron, Magua kills Uncas, and Hawk-eye kills Magua. The funerals of Uncas and Cora are later held at the Delaware village. Tamenund prophesies: "The pale-faces are masters of the earth, and the time of the red-men has not yet come again..."

The Last of the Mohicans

In 1757, during the French and Indian War, Mohican Chingachgook, his son, Uncas, and his white, adopted son, "Hawkeye," are travelling through the upstate New York wilderness. Stopping at the farm of a friend, they learn of the British Army's intent to incorporate the colonial militia into their forces to fight against the French and their Indian allies. While some of the colonials and local native tribes agree to join the militia on the condition that they will be released to defend their homes should the French or Indians attack, Hawkeye, the Mohicans, and others show no interest.
British Army Major Duncan Heyward arrives in Albany, New York, reports to commanding officer General Jerome Webb and is assigned to Colonel Edmund Munro, the commander of Fort William Henry in the Adirondack Mountains (historically George Monro). Heyward is tasked with escorting Munro's two daughters, Cora and Alice, to their father. Before they leave, Heyward asks Cora to marry him, but she asks for more time before giving her answer.
A Huron named Magua, masquerading as a Mohawk ally, is tasked with guiding Heyward, the two women, and a troop of British soldiers to the fort, but instead leads them into an ambush that kills most of the soldiers. Hawkeye, Chingachgook, and Uncas, who had been tracking the Huron war party, arrive and kill all of the Hurons except Magua, who escapes. The trio agrees to take the women and Heyward to the fort. Reaching their friends' farm, they find their friends massacred by an enemy Ottawa war party, but do not stop to bury the victims so as to not alert the Hurons to their having been there. As their journey continues, Cora and Hawkeye become attracted to each other, while Uncas begins to show an interest in Alice.
They find the fort under siege by the French and their Huron allies, but manage to sneak in. Colonel Munro is surprised to see his daughters, as he had sent a letter to them in Albany warning them to stay away, which never reached them. During the siege, a romance blossoms between Hawkeye and Cora. Heyward becomes jealous of Hawkeye when Cora tells Heyward she will not accept his marriage proposal. A militiaman sets out at night to try to reach General Webb at Fort Edward with a dispatch for reinforcements, with Hawkeye, Chingachgook, and Uncas providing covering fire from the fort.
Hawkeye and the militiamen confront Munro about the agreement with Webb that the militiamen could leave to protect their homesteads if they were threatened. After Heyward lies about the massacre at the farm, Munro refuses to honor the agreement. Hawkeye helps the men sneak away, and is arrested for sedition and sentenced to hang. In a parley with French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, when Munro learns that Webb will send no reinforcements, he is forced to accept Montcalm's terms of surrender, which include the promise that the British can leave the fort honorably with their arms. Magua is furious because he bears a personal grudge against Munro, whom he blames for the murder of his family and his own enslavement by the Mohawk; Montcalm tacitly agrees to allow Magua to attack the British once they have left the fort.
Once Munro, his soldiers, and the civilians (with Hawkeye still a prisoner) have left the fort and traveled some distance, Huron warriors led by Magua attack and massacre them. Munro's horse is killed by Magua and falls on top of him, trapping him; Magua promises him that he will kill his daughters and then cuts out his heart. Chingachgook and Uncas free Hawkeye, and they fight their way out of the massacre, taking Cora, Alice, and Heyward via canoe across a lake and downriver. They hide in a cave behind a waterfall, but Magua and the Hurons find them. Before Hawkeye, Uncas and Chingachgook escape by leaping from the waterfall, Hawkeye tells Cora to stay alive and swears that he will find her.
Magua takes his three prisoners to a Huron settlement, with Hawkeye, Chingachgook, and Uncas in pursuit. While Magua is addressing a sachem, Hawkeye walks in unarmed for a parley to plead for their lives. The sachem rules that Heyward is to be returned to the British, Alice be given to Magua for the wrongs done to him by Munro, and Cora be burned alive. Magua is enraged at the sachem's claim that his actions show that his way is not the true Huron way and at his decision about the captives; he storms off with his warriors, taking Alice with them. Although Hawkeye is told he may leave in peace for his bravery, he offers to take Cora's place. Heyward, who is acting as interpreter, instead tells the Hurons to take his own life for Cora's. As Hawkeye is leaving the village with Cora, he shoots Heyward, who is being burned alive, as an act of mercy.
Chingachgook, Uncas, and Hawkeye then pursue Magua's party to rescue Alice. Uncas races ahead on a cliffside path and kills several of the Hurons in combat, but is killed by Magua and thrown off the cliff's edge. Devastated to see Uncas's death, Alice refuses to remain with her captors and commits suicide by jumping off the same cliff. Enraged, Hawkeye and Chingachgook catch up to the Hurons and kill many of them. Hawkeye then holds the rest at gunpoint, allowing Chingachgook to fight and kill Magua himself, avenging Uncas's death. Afterward, with Hawkeye and Cora by his side, Chingachgook prays to the Great Spirit to receive Uncas, proclaiming himself, "the last of the Mohicans".