a Mingo is much like the regard between a white man and a
sarpent."

"I regret to hear it; for I had believed those natives who dwelt within
our boundaries had found us too just and liberal, not to identify
themselves fully with our quarrels."

"Why, I believe it is natur' to give a preference to one's own quarrels
before those of strangers. Now, for myself, I do love justice; and
therefore I will not say I hate a Mingo, for that may be unsuitable to
my color and my religion, though I will just repeat, it may have been
owing to the night that 'Killdeer' had no hand in the death of this
skulking Oneida."

Then, as if satisfied with the force of his own reasons, whatever might
be their effect on the opinions of the other disputant, the honest but
implacable woodsman turned from the fire, content to let the controversy
slumber. Heyward withdrew to the rampart, too uneasy and too little
accustomed to the warfare of the woods to remain at ease under the
possibility of such insidious attacks. Not so, however, with the scout
and the Mohicans. Those acute and long practised senses, whose powers so
often exceed the limits of all ordinary credulity, after having detected
the danger, had enabled them to ascertain its magnitude and duration.
Not one of the three appeared in the least to doubt their perfect
security, as was indicated by the preparations that were soon made to
sit in council over their future proceedings.

The confusion of nations, and even of tribes, to which Hawkeye alluded,
existed at that period in the fullest force. The great tie of language,
and, of course, of a common origin, was severed in many places; and it
was one of its consequences, that the Delaware and the Mingo (as the
people of the Six Nations were called) were found fighting in the same
ranks, while the latter sought the scalp of the Huron, though believed
to be the root of his own stock. The Delawares were even divided among
themselves. Though love for the soil which had belonged to his ancestors
kept the Sagamore of the Mohicans with a small band of followers who
were serving at Edward, under the banners of the English king, by far
the largest portion of his nation were known to be in the field as
allies of Montcalm. The reader probably knows, if enough has not already
been gleaned from this narrative, that the Delaware, or Lenape, claimed
to be the progenitors of that numerous people, who once were masters of
most of the Eastern and Northern