OR, THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH: A TALE. BY FENIMORE COOPER, AUTHOR OF THE PILOT, THE SPY, THE PIONEERS, &c., &c., &c. SOLD ALSO BY AMYOT, RUE DE LA PAIX; TRUCHY, BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS; 1835. PREFACE. So much has been written of the North American Indians of late, that very little explanation is necessary to prepare the reader for the incidents and allusions of this tale. The principal aborigines that are introduced are historical; and, although the situations are imagined, they so nearly resemble facts that are known to have occurred, as to give a sufficiently correct idea of the opinions, habits, and feelings of a class of beings whom we are pleased to term savages. Metacom, or, as he was called by the English, King Philip, Uncas, Conanchet, Miantonimoh, and Ounawon, were all Indian chiefs of great note, whose names have become identified with the history of New England. The appellation of Uncas, in particular, appears to have belonged to an entire race among the Mohegans, for it was borne by a succession of Sagamores, and at a later day was found, among their descendants, united to the common baptismal names, such as John, Henry, Thomas," &c., having been regularly adopted as the surname of a family. Metacom, or Philip, who figures in these pages as the most |