The boy scout

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Pathfinder ( English The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea ) is an adventure and society novel published in 1840 by the American writer James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851). The novel was published as the fourth volume of the five-part Lederstrumpf - cycle . In the chronological plot of the series, the novel forms the third volume.

The Boy Scout (Soviet postage stamp in honor of J. F. Cooper's 200th birthday, 1989)

content

The story takes place on Lake Ontario in the late 1750s during the French and Indian War . The presumably British NCO Charles Cap is on their way to Fort Oswego , where Mabel's father is serving as a sergeant , together with his niece Mabel Dunham . You will be accompanied by the Indian scout Arrowhead and his wife June. In the forest, the group meets the ranger Natty Bumppo, known as Boy Scout, the Mohican Chingachgook and the inland captain Jasper Western. This was sent by Sergeant Dunham to bring his daughter safely through the territory of the Iroquois allied with the French .

After a first battle, scouts manage to take the group by water to the fort at the mouth of the Otsego River in Lake Ontario. There Sergeant Dunham tells his daughter that he wants her to be married as soon as possible, so that he doesn't have to worry about her future. Dunham encourages Bumppo to woo Mabel. Jasper Western and the quartermaster, Lieutenant Muir, also court Mabel. At a prize shooting, Boy Scout Western gives first place so that he can present Mabel with the silk scarf he has won.

Although Western is accused of espionage by an anonymous letter , he is supposed to bring supplies with the cutter Scud for a secret base on one of the thousand islands . Lieutenant Muir, Sergeant Dunham, Mabel, Cap, Boy Scouts, and Chingachgook accompany him. Once at the outpost, Dunham, Boy Scouts, Chingachgook and some soldiers go on an exploration tour. Western sails back with the relieved soldiers. In the meantime, Mabel meets June. She admits that her husband Arrowhead is working with the French and planning an attack on the camp. Mabel manages to hide in the fortified log cabin while Cap and Muir are captured. On their return, the reconnaissance team is ambushed. Boy scouts and the badly wounded Dunham escape into the log cabin, Chingachgook escapes in a canoe and tries to get help from Fort Oswego. Shortly before his death, Dunham asks boy scouts again to take care of his daughter, which he promises.

On the second day of the siege, the Scud reached the base. Western succeeds in capturing the Iroquois' canoes. Robbed of their boats and in view of the military superiority they want to surrender . This leads to an argument between Arrowhead and Lieutenant Muir. In the course of this, the Indian accuses the quartermaster of treason and stabs him to death. While he escapes, Arrowhead is killed by Chingachgook. A French officer present confirmed that Muir was spying for him and that he wanted to use the anonymous letter to direct suspicion of Westerns. Boy Scout reports to Western about Sergeant Dunham's last wish, he also explains that he cannot imagine a life with Mabel in the wilderness.

A few weeks later, Boy Scouts and Chingachgook visit Jasper Westerns and Mabel, who together with June have built a log cabin near Fort Oswego.

literature

Text output

  • The boy scout . Complete edition. Edited translation by E. Kolb u. a. by Rudolf Drescher, illustrations by DE Darley, Insel-Taschenbuch 181, 1st edition, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-458-01881-6

Secondary literature

Web links