The Last of the Mohicans and ultimately capture the Huron village, but Magua escapes with Cora and two other Hurons; Uncas, Hawk-eye, and Heyward pursue them up to a high mountain. In a fight at the edge of a cliff, Cora, Uncas, and Magua are killed. The novel concludes with a lengthy account of the funerals of Uncas and Cora, and Hawk-eye reaffirms his friendship with Chingachgook. Tamenund prophesies: "The pale-faces are masters of the earth, and the time of the red-men has not yet come again...". According to Susan Fenimore Cooper, the author's eldest daughter, Cooper first conceived the idea for the book while
The Last of the Mohicans essay, Twain re-writes a small section of "The Last of the Mohicans", claiming that Cooper, "the generous spendthrift", used 100 "extra and unnecessary words" in the original version. Re-reading the book in his later years, Cooper noted some inconsistencies of plot and characterization, particularly the character of Munro. But, he wrote that in general, "the book must needs have some interest for the reader, since it could amuse even the writer, who had in a great measure forgotten the details of his own work." The book has been considered to be the first Great American Novel. "The Last of the