The remnants of the Mohicans, and the Delawares, of the Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokees, are destined to fulfil their time on these vast plains.

The entire number of the Indians, within the Union, is differently computed, at between one and three hundred thousand souls.
Most of them inhabit the country west of the Mississippi.

At the period of the tale, they dwelt in open hostility; national feuds passing from generation to generation.

The power of the republic has done much to restore peace to these wild scenes, and it is now possible to travel in security, where civilised man did not dare to pass unprotected five-and-twenty years ago.
The reader, who has perused the two former works, of which this is the natural successor, will recognise an old acquaintance in the principal character of the story.

We have here brought him to his end, and we trust he will be permitted to slumber in the peace of the just.
J.F.Cooper Paris June 1832 THE PRAIRIE.