 earth, and in that attitude of friendship, these two
sturdy and intrepid woodsmen bowed their heads together, while scalding tears
fell to their feet, watering the grave of Uncas, like drops of falling rain.
    In the midst of the awful stillness with which such a burst of feeling,
coming, as it did, from the two most renowned warriors of that region, was
received, Tamenund lifted his voice, to disperse the multitude.
    »It is enough!« he said. »Go, children of the Lenape; the anger of the
Manitto is not done. Why should Tamenund stay? The pale-faces are masters of the
earth, and the time of the red-men has not yet come again. My day has been too
long. In the morning I saw the sons of Unâmis happy and strong; and yet, before
the night has come, have I lived to see the last warrior of the wise race of the
Mohicans!«
 

                                     Notes

1 As each nation of the Indians had either its language or its dialect, they
usually gave different names to the same places, though nearly all of their
appellations were descriptive of the object. Thus, a literal translation of the
name of this beautiful sheet of water, used by the tribe that dwelt on its
banks, would be The tail of the Lake. Lake George, as it is vulgarly, and now
indeed legally, called, forms a sort of tail to Lake Champlain, when viewed on
the map. Hence the name.
 
2 Washington: who, after uselessly admonishing the European general of the
danger into which he was heedlessly running, saved the remnants of the British
army, on this occasion, by his decision and courage. The reputation earned by
Washington in this battle was the principal cause of his being selected to
command the American armies at a later day. It is a circumstance worthy of
observation, that, while all America rang with his well merited reputation, his
name does not occur in any European account of the battle; at least, the author
has searched for it without success. In this manner does the mother country
absorb even the fame, under that system of rule.
 
3 There existed for a long time a confederation among the Indian tribes which
occupied the north-western part of the colony of New York, which was at first
known as the Five Nations. At a later day it admitted another tribe, when the
appellation was changed to that of the Six Nations. The original confederation
consisted of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Senecas, the Cayugas, and the
Onondagoes. The sixth tribe
