The Battle at Glen's Falls is a running contest between a pursued party and Huron attackers in which the falls and island provide both a refuge and a deadly obstacle. Hawkeye, Uncas, and Duncan hold off successive assaults, but the defenders' tactical success does not secure their escape: a Huron takes their canoe into the current, leaving the party stranded.

Causes and Setting

The action takes place among the rocks, chasm, and island at the falls, where Duncan, Alice, Cora, David Gamut, Hawkeye, and the Mohicans have gathered. The party is already under pursuit. When Duncan calls the sisters to move, a sudden tumult of cries spreads through the woods and around the falls, followed by rifle fire from the opposite banks. The attack reveals that the party is surrounded, while the narrow chasm offers only a limited place of shelter.

The river shapes the encounter as decisively as the armed opponents do. Hawkeye warns that the Hurons know their numbers and are unlikely to abandon the chase; soon several swimmers appear among driftwood at the island's head. One is swept over the falls before he can reach safety. Duncan's impulse to help him is checked by Hawkeye, who argues that exposing their position would bring further danger and that their ammunition must be conserved.

The Assault and Defense

After the initial exchange, the attackers withdraw, and the defenders wait among the island's shrubs and stones. At dawn, the absence of an immediate renewed attack briefly encourages Duncan to hope that the enemy has been repelled. Hawkeye rejects that conclusion. His warning proves accurate: four Hurons emerge from the driftwood and rush the defenders across the rocks.

Hawkeye fires on the leading attacker, and Uncas joins the defense as the fighting closes. Duncan and Hawkeye then advance against the remaining opponents, but their pistols fail to stop them. Hawkeye and one Huron struggle for control of a knife until the scout overpowers him. Duncan, whose sword breaks in the encounter, is left to defend himself at close quarters; Uncas intervenes when Duncan is in danger, allowing him to break away from the struggle. The fighting is therefore won through coordination and individual intervention rather than through the defenders' firearms alone.

The Lost Canoe and Immediate Outcome

The lull does not last. When Uncas calls out, the party discovers that their canoe is moving across the eddy toward the river's swift current, propelled by a hidden Huron. Hawkeye raises his rifle, but it will not fire; without powder, the defenders cannot stop the canoe or pursue it by their intended route. The Huron signals success as he is carried downstream, while cries from the woods answer him.

The battle ends without the party's capture, but their position has worsened: they have survived the attacks yet lost their means of escape by water. The episode thus turns a defensive success into a fresh predicament, as the natural obstacle that helped protect them also limits their choices.

Wider Conflict

The larger military setting is shaped by unstable alliances and competing claims to territory. The Hurons have followed Montcalm into English territory, while a Delaware faction has also entered the region but withheld help when it was most needed. The account attributes that restraint in part to the Delawares' old obligations to the Six Nations and their reluctance to fight their former masters. Montcalm tolerates their inaction rather than risk turning a passive ally into an enemy.

Hawkeye later describes how white political maneuvering has confused Indigenous alliances: Hurons and Oneidas who speak closely related languages fight one another, while Delawares are divided between factions. In his account, attachment to one's own people's quarrels persists despite changing imperial policy. That political disorder forms the background to the pursuit at the falls, where the combatants' immediate struggle is also part of a broader contest involving colonial power, Indigenous alliances, and hunting lands.