Fenimore Cooper's fictitious frontier hero Bumppo is never called by his name, but is instead referred to as "the trapper" or "the old man". It depicts Natty in the final year of his life still proving helpful to people in distress on the American frontier. The book frequently references characters and events from the two books previously published in the Leatherstocking Tales as well as the two which Cooper wouldn't write for more than ten years.