James Fenimore Cooper

                               The Deerslayer or

                               The First War-Path

                                     A Tale

                                    Preface

This book has not been written, without many misgivings as to its probable
reception. To carry one and the same character through five several works would
seem to be a wilful over drawing on the good nature of the public, and many
persons may very reasonably suppose it an act, of itself, that ought to invite a
rebuke. To this natural objection, the author can only say that, if he has
committed a grave fault on this occasion, his readers are in some measure
answerable for it. The favorable manner in which the more advanced career, and
the death of Leather Stocking were received, has created, in the mind of the
author at least, a sort of necessity for giving some account of his younger
days. In short the pictures, of his life, such as they are, were already so
complete as to excite some little desire to see the study, from which they have
all been drawn.
    »The Leather-Stocking Tales,« form now something like a drama in five acts;
complete as to material and design, though quite probably very incomplete as to
execution. Such as they are, the reading world has them before it. Their author
hopes, should it decide that this particular act, the last in execution, though
the first in the order of perusal, is not the best of the series, it will also
come to the conclusion that it is not absolutely the worst. More than once, he
has been tempted to burn his manuscript, and to turn to some other subject,
though he has met with an encouragement, in the course of his labors, of a
character so singular, as to be worth mentioning. An anonymous letter from
England, has reached him, written as he thinks by a lady, in which he is urged
to do almost the very thing he had already more than half executed; a request
that he has been willing enough to construe into a sign that his attempt will be
partially forgiven, if not altogether commended.
    Little need be said concerning the characters and scenery of this Tale. The
former are fictitious, as a matter of course; but the latter is as true to
nature, as an intimate knowledge of the present appearance of the region
described, and such probable conjectures concerning its ancient state as could
be furnished by the imagination, enabled the writer to render it. The lake,
mountains, valley and forests, are all believed to be sufficiently exact, while
the river, rock and shoal are faithful transcripts from nature. Even the