n. It is enough
to say here that the view Cooper took was not hastily formed, nor was
it the result of accidental prejudices. He studied all the sources of
information accessible at that time which threw light upon the (p. 055)
Indian character. He visited the deputations from the various tribes
that passed through the state of New York on their way to the national
capital. In some instances he followed them to Washington. It is
obvious that to a man of his poetic temperament they may have appeared
in a different light from what they did to the ordinary government
agent. Certainly he never found reason to modify his views, though he
was familiar with the criticism made upon them. Toward the close of
his life he took occasion to reaffirm them. It is also to be added
that if he gave especial prominence to certain virtues, real or
imaginary, of the Indian race, he was equally careful not to pass over
their vices. Most of the warriors he introduces are depicted as
crafty, bloodthirsty, and merciless. But whether his representation be
true or false, it has from that time to this profoundly affected
opinion. Throughout the whole civilized world the conception of the
Indian character, as Cooper drew it in "The Last of the Mohicans" and
still further elaborated it in the later "Leather-Stocking Tales," has
taken permanent hold of the imaginations of men. Individuals may cast
it off; but in the case of the great mass it stands undisturbed by
doubt or unshaken by denial. This much can be said in its favor
irrespective of the question of its accuracy. If Cooper has given to
Indian conversation more poetry than it is thought to possess, or to
Indian character more virtue, the addition has been a gain to
literature, whatever it may have been to truth.

CHAPTER IV. (p. 056)

1826-1830.

With the publication of "The Last of the Mohicans," Cooper's popularity
was at its height. His countrymen were proud of him, proud that he had
chosen his native land as the scene of his stories, proud that he had in
consequence extended among all cultivated peoples its fame as well as his
own. His works were more than read. They were in most cases dramatized
and acted as soon as published. Artists vied in making incidents depicted
in them the subjects of their paintings. Poems, founded upon them or
connected in some way with them, made their appearance in the newspapers.
If in many