York." This volume of Graham's Magazine also included the life of "John Paul Jones," wherein appeared Cooper's masterful description of the celebrated battle of the Bon Homme Richard—one of the most remarkable in the brief annals of that time of American naval warfare.
Of John Paul Jones himself Cooper wrote:
"In battle, Paul Jones was brave; in enterprise, hardy and original; in victory, mild and generous; in motives, much disposed to disinterestedness, though ambitious of renown and covetous of distinction; in pecuniary relations, liberal; in his affections, natural and sincere; and in his temper, except in those cases which assailed his reputation, just and forgiving."
Fenimore Cooper was a veritable pioneer in
spirit. He delighted in the details of American "clearing,"—from the first opening of the forest to sunlight, by the felling of trees and stump-extractor, to the neat drain and finished stonewall. On the mountain slope of Otsego's shore, and less than two miles from Cooperstown, lay his small farm belted with woodland, from which he had filched it in true pioneer fashion. Concerning Cooper's "costly contest with the soil," Mr. Keese tells us: "The inspiring beauty of its commanding views caught Cooper's fancy for buying it far more than any meager money returns its two hundred acres could promise."