James Fenimore Cooper was inspired by a tale related to him by neighbor and family friend John Jay. It was more successful and became a bestseller; the setting of this Revolutionary War tale is widely believed to have been John Jay's family home "The Locusts" in Rye, New York. In 1823, Cooper published "The Pioneers", the first of the "Leatherstocking" series. The series features Natty Bumppo, a resourceful American woodsman at home with the Delaware Indians and their chief Chingachgook. Bumppo was also the main character of Cooper's most famous novel "The Last of the Mohicans" (1826), written in New York City where
The Settlers in Canada book. The novel is set in the wilderness of Upper Canada in the 1790s, and follows the fortunes of the Campbell family who settle near Lake Ontario. The theme of the work probably owes something to the historical romances of James Fenimore Cooper which dealt with frontier and Indian life in the early American days. Marryat's story similarly combines adventure with colonial pastoral. The rigors of pioneering and combating the native threat shape the Campbell family into successful immigrants, in part by teaching them the ways of the indigenous natives. The novel is often cited for containing the first known