The Last of the Mohicans, Chapter 28 summary

What happens

1. Magua enters the busy Delaware camp peacefully and shares a meal with its leading spokesman and several elders.
2. The spokesman refuses Magua’s indirect requests to surrender Cora and avoids answering questions about other visitors.
3. Magua distributes stolen ornaments, softening his hosts with gifts and carefully chosen praise.
4. He suggests that sheltering English scouts threatens the Delawares’ standing with their French allies, then names the Long Carbine.
5. The news unsettles the camp, and the elders call a formal gathering of more than a thousand people.
6. Tamenund arrives with two elderly supporters, receives his people’s reverence, and sits as the prisoners enter the assembled circle.

In this chapter

What to notice

Magua challenges the protection offered by hospitality. By recasting guests as spies, he gives the Delawares a reason to reconsider their welcome.

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