After Munro had him whipped after drunken disorder, Magua returned to the Hurons and is leading them in revenge against the British. He allied with the Mohawks but continued to drink. When Cora demands to know why the Hurons were so eager to capture them, Magua says that Colonel Munro and the “Canada fathers” introduced him to firewater, causing him to get drunk and be expelled from his tribe. Magua returns with more Hurons and captures Heyward, Gamut, and the Munro sisters. Knowing that Magua will return with reinforcements, Hawkeye and the Mohicans lead their new companions to a cave and split up for safety. Natty Bumppo (also known as Hawkeye) and his Mohican friends, Chingachgook and his son Uncas, rescue the party. Magua, a Huron scout secretly allied with the French, leads them into an ambush. In the party are David Gamut, the singing teacher, and Major Duncan Heyward, the group’s military leader.
Cora and Alice Munro, daughters of Lieutenant Colonel Munro, are traveling with a column of reinforcements from Fort Edward to Fort William Henry, where Munro is commanding an army.
