Editorial note — James Fenimore Cooper

{Swimming Seneca = though I have been unable to discover any genuine Native American origin for this legend, a detailed variation of it can be found in a poem, "Outalissa", by Rev. Ralph Hoyt, published in "Sketches by Rev. Hoyt, Vol. VIII" (New York. C. Shepard, n.d. [ca. 1848] (the Geneva College library copy of which is inscribed "DeLancey" and may have belonged to the family of Cooper's brother-in-law, Episcopal Bishop of Western New York William Heathcote De Lancey (1797-1865), who lived in Geneva)—a somewhat different version forms the Geneva (Hobart) College student legend of Chief Agayentha or "The Floating Chief."}