The Deerslayer takes place on Otsego Lake, the current site of Cooperstown, New York. Set in 1743, long before James Fenimore Cooper's family established the first settlement at the southern end of the lake, the story brings the young hunter, Nathaniel Bumppo, and his Delaware brother, Chingachgook, to the lake to rescue Chingachgook's bride-to-be from a Iroquois war party. They enlist themselves in a bloody battle to protect a family of settlers from the Iroquois, and the resulting scenes are dramatic and suspenseful, as loves and scalps are won and lost.
The Last of The Mohicans is the universal favorite and best known of the series. Cooper builds the story around the historic massacre at Fort William Henry on the shores of Lake George. Natty Bumppo, now in his thirties and known by his Indian name of Hawkeye, joins forces with Chingachgook and Chingachgook's son Uncas to save the lives of the daughters of the fort's commanding officer. Numerous exciting and complicated canoe and trail chases take place over the lakes and through the mountains and forests of Upper York Colony. Full play is given to the treachery of Montcalm, General Webb and the Mingo warrior, Magua, as Cooper describes in heart-rending passages the disaster of the terrible massacre and its aftermath on the lives of both his fictional and historic characters.
The Pathfinder is devoted to a love story for Hawkeye. Cooper, fascinated with the use of ships to wage war on the Great Lakes, moves the scene of the action to Fort Oswego, Lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Again, treachery drives the story as an officer of a Scottish regiment sells his loyalty to the French and their Indian sympathizers. Cooper displays a penchant for mystery and intrigue as the characters struggle to identify the traitor and avoid the capture of their island stronghold.
http://www.mohicanpress.com/mo06058.html
Note: bolding is mine
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