names! Many other typographical errors exist in the earlier editions, most of which, it is believed, are corrected in this.

There are a few discrepancies in the facts of this work, as connected with the facts of the different books of the series. They are not material, and it was thought fairer to let them stand as proof of the manner in which the books were originally written, than to make any changes in the

text.

In youth, when belonging to the navy, the writer of this book served for some time on the great western lakes. Ho was, indeed, one of those who first carried the cockade of the republic on those inland seas. This was pretty early in the present century, when the navigation was still confined to the employment of a few ships and schooners. Since that day, light may be said to have broken into the wilderness, and the rays of the sun have penetrated to tens of thousands of beautiful valleys and plains, that then lay in "grateful shade." Towns have been built along the whole of the extended line of coasts, and the traveller now stops at many a place of ten or fifteen, and at one of even fifty thousand inhabitants, where a few huts then marked the natural sites of future marts. In a word, though the scenes of this book are believed to have once been as nearly accurate as is required by the laws which govern fiction, they are so no longer. Oswego is a large and thriving town; Toronto and Kingston, on the other side of the lake, compete with it; while Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukie, and Chicago, on the upper lakes, to say nothing of a hundred places of lesser note, are fast advancing to the level of commercial places of great local importance. In these changes, the energy of youth and abundance is quite as much apparent as anything else; and it is ardently to be hoped that the fruits of the gifts of a most bountiful Providence may not be mistaken for any peculiar qualities in those who have been their beneficiaries. A just appreciation of the first of these facts will render us grateful and

meek; while the vain-glorious, who are so apt to ascribe all to themselves, will be certain to live long enough to ascertain the magnitude of their error. That great results are intended to be produced by means of these wonderful changes, we firmly believe; but that they will prove to be the precise results now so generally anticipated, in consulting the experience of the past, and taking the nature of man into the account, the reflecting and intelligent may be permitted to doubt.

It may strike the novice as an anachronism, to place vessels on Ontario in the middle of the eighteenth century, but, in this particular, facts will fully bear out all the license of the fiction. Although the precise vessels mentioned in these pages may never have existed on that water, or anywhere else, others so nearly resembling them as to form a sufficient authority for their introduction into a work of fiction, are known to have navigated that inland sea, even at a period much earlier than the one just mentioned. It is a fact not generally remembered, however well known it may be, that there are isolated spots along the line of the great lakes, that date, as settlements, as far back as many of the oldest American towns, and which were the seats of a species of civilization long before the greater portion of even the original States was rescued from the wilderness.

Ontario, in our own times, has been the scene of important naval evolutions. Fleets have manoeuvred on those waters, which, half a century since, were desert wastes; and the day is not distant, when the whole of that vast range of lakes will become the seat of empire, and fraught with all the interests of human society. A passing glimpse, even though it be in a work of fiction, of what that vast region so lately was, may help to make up the sum of knowledge by which alone a just appreciation can be formed of the wonderful means by which Providence is clearing the way for the advancement of civilization across the whole American continent,

INTRODUCTION.

BY SUSAN FENIMORE COOPER.

THE fertile country south of Lake Ontario, lay overshadowed by a beautiful leafy canopy, during untold ages.

When the wondering pale-faces first landed on the shores of that inland sea, they beheld boundless forests stretching before them, forests made up of oak, ash, chestnut, pine, and maple, of the most noble growth. More than two centuries passed away after the discovery of the St. Lawrence, and still that region preserved the same character of a grand, shadowy wilderness. Slowly and reluctantly as it were, those great old trees dropped their limbs, bowed their heads, and stretched their giant trunks on the earth. That fluttering, leafy canopy, vast in its proportions, beautiful and delicate in texture, ever-varying in its aspects under the successive changes of storm and sunshine, of spring and autumn that living canopy was not to be folded, and laid aside in one century. The brawny arms of hundreds of thousands of woodmen were needed to do the work, half a dozen generations or more toiled out a life-time, one after the other, and lay down in their graves ere the task was done. It was not until the first years of the present century that the soil of that region was thoroughly opened to the light of the sun.

Meanwhile stirring scenes were enacted within the shady limits of those forests. There were grand hunts in which whole tribes were engaged. There were wars in which ex. tensive confederacies were in arms, wars in which entire clans were exterminated. Council fires were lighted, at

which envoys from tribes a thousand miles distant appeared to negotiate peace or war. And, very soon after the planting of the first colonies on the St. Lawrence and the Hudson, the pale-faces came along those foot-paths, stretching out one hand for the peltries, and offering the fire-water with the other. Stealthily, and treacherously, the astute diplomacy of Versailles came creeping along those foresttrails. In shrewd foresight the statesmen of France far surpassed those of Holland and England. Far-seeing, farreaching, were the plans skillfully woven in the gilded cabinets of Versailles or St. Germain, for the ultimate mastery of the Continent of North America, at least so far south as Mexico. And thoroughly were those plans carried out by subordinate legions selfish traders, daring adventurers, gallant soldiers, and devout missionaries, whether consciously or unconsciously, tens of thousands of these were working for the extension of French power in North America.

And what has it all availed? One touch of the finger of Providence and the proud fabric so cunningly raised has vanished like the bubble blown by a child. The flag of France is an alien flag to-day, throughout North America.

The possession of the southern shore of Lake Ontario was early deemed of great importance by the Canadian government. But here they met a foe who not only faced them bravely, but who at one period even threatened utterly to uproot the French Colonies on the St. Lawrence. The Konoshioni, the United People, or the Iroquois tribes as they were called by their French neighbors, held the whole. country to the southward of the lake. They were brave and fierce in war. They were astute in policy. During nearly a century, the French made little impression on them. At length the Jesuit Missionaries penetrated into the heart of the Iroquois country, about the middle of the seventeenth century. And they came by the river, which now bears the name of the Oswego. These good men were early employed by the Canadian authorities in a semi-diplomatic character, and it was the intention to obtain a

permanent foot-hold in the country, through their influence, and to establish colonies on the shores of Lake Onondaga. This effort failed. But still for many years the Canadian government kept their eyes fixed upon that southern shore, eagerly watching for an opportunity to seize some one favorable point as a nucleus for future operations. The mouth of the Oswego River was the site they most coveted as the key to the whole Iroquois country. Choueguen, as they named the spot, held a prominent place in their plans and is constantly mentioned in their older records. Scarce a meeting between the sachems of the upper tribes, and the agents of the French, whether at Onondaga or at Montreal, in which Choueguen is not named. But the rude diplomatists at the Council fire of Onondaga, were very unwilling to yield this ground to the French. A wild Indian village, insignificant in size, and chiefly occupied by fishing parties, was found there by the first French missionary explorers, and continued for nearly a century, the only human habitations at the mouth of the river. Fort Frontenac was built on the northern shore of the lake in 1672, but still the Konoshioni warned off the pale-faces from the coveted ground at Choueguen. In 1687 the French built a small fort at Niagara, but it was demolished a year later to satisfy the jealousy of the Indians. Thirty-three years afterwards, in 1720, the French again took possession of the same ground. "We come to you howling," said the Indian sachems to the Governor of New York, "and this is the reason we howl, because the Governor of Canada encroaches on our land!" The rebuilding of the fort at Niagara caused the "howling." Governor Burnet remonstrated with the French authorities, but without effect. He resolved to weaken the importance of this French fort by building a stronger one at the mouth of the Oswego River. It appears that it had been the intention of King William to build a fort at Oswego, some thirty years earlier, and the plate and furniture for a chapel in connection with the fort were sent over from England. But the death of the King prevented the