Mackenzie, Sir Alexander

(1755-1820)

   S Visits Simcoe, 188; recommends establishment of two trading-posts on Pacific coast, 189. MS Joins North West Company, 7; opposes Selkirk's plans, 7, 146, 151, 159, 167; his death, 8; born 1763 at Stornoway, Island of Lewis, Scotland, 10; parentage, 10; education, 10; emigrates to Canada, 1779, 10; enters fur trade and joins opposition to McTavish, 10, 11; his keenness and daring, 11; leads trading expedition to Detroit, 11; at Grand Portage, 1785, 12; becomes a bourgeois, 12; assigned to English River department, 14; friendly relations with officers of rival North West Company, 15; goes to Athabaska, 17; his administrative ability, 17, 18; plans for expansion, 18; sends Leroux to build post on Great Slave Lake, 18; and Boyer to build one on Peace River, 19; describes life of fur trader, 22; his ambitious designs for discovery, 22; unpopular with McTavish, 23; hears of a great river in the north, 31; preparation for his journey, 32; his narrative, 32; his party, 33; sets out June 3, 1789, from Fort Chipewyan, 33; reaches Great Slave Lake, 35; meets Yellow Knife Indians, 36; enters Mackenzie River, 37; meets Slave and Dog-Rib Indians, 28; their account of the river, 38; passes mouth of Great Bear River, 28, 47; meets Hare Indians, 39; and Quarrellers, 39; enters the delta, 39; lands on Whale Island, at mouth of the river, 40; erects post with inscription, 40; uncertainty as to his having reached the sea, 43, 61; the return journey, 43; coal seam on fire, 47; difficulties with "English Chief," 45, 46, 48; returns to Great Slave Lake, 48; meets Leroux, 48-49; reaches Chipewyan, Sept. 12, 1789, 50; results of the journey, 50-51; establishes existence and course of Yukon, 50-51; his treatment of natives, 51; his account of fauna, 51; his character, 51-52, 59; winters at Chipewyan, 53; unfriendliness of partners of Company, 53; his project for a journey to the West, 53; goes down to Grand Portage, 53; cool reception there, 54; returns to Chipewyan, 54; his letters, 54; meets Philip Turner, 57; his share in North West Company, 58; goes to England to acquire instruction and instruments for his second journey, 59; returns to Athabaska, 61; preparations for journey to the Pacific, 61; sends men to Peace River to cut timber for a post, 61; leaves Chipewyan, Oct. 10, 1792, 61; ascends Peace River, passes the falls and Boyer's "Old Establishment," and reaches Finlay's fort, 62; his method of dealing with the Indians, 62-63; winters at the forks, 63-65; Chinook winds, 65; sets out for the mountains and beyond, 66; members of his party, 67; a man of heroic mould, 68; leaves Finlay's fort, May 9, 1793, 69; describes Peace River, 69; difficulties in crossing the mountains, 70, 72; meets strange Indians, 74; ascends the Parsnip River, 75; reaches its source, 75; descends the Fraser, 77; retraces his steps, and travels overland to the sea, 79-85; describes visit to the Coast Indians, 83; natives refer to Vancouver's party, 85; reaches coast and paints record of his journey on a rock, 86; the return journey, 86; trouble with the natives, 87; reaches Peace River, 88; reaches Finlay's fort, 89; and Chipewyan, 89; leaves the West, 89; increased reputation among partners of North West Company, 92; withdraws from Company and sails for England, 93; publishes his book, 94; King Bernadotte of Sweden's tribute to explorer, 95; Napoleon has his Voyages translated into French, 96, 97; friendship of duke of Kent, 98; receives knighthood, 98; becomes head of X Y Company, 99; elected to Legislature of Lower Canada, 100; returns to Scotland, 1808, 100; opposes Selkirk's scheme, 100; his marriage, 101; his family, 101; his death, March 12, 1820, 102; compared with Selkirk, 209. D His expeditions to the Arctic and Pacific, 51; his personality, 52; parentage, 52; arrival in Canada, 53; enters fur trade, 53; in command of Fort Chipewyan, 53; his desire to rival Samuel Hearne, 53; sets out from Chipewyan in 1789 to explore Mackenzie River, 53; river named after him, 53; proves futility of search for North-West Passage, 53; visits England and, prepares himself for further discoveries, 53; returns to the West, and leaves Chipewyan, Oct. 10, 1792, for the Pacific, 53; ascends Peace River and crosses the mountains, 54; reaches Tacouche Tesse (Fraser), which he supposes to be the Oregon (Columbia), 54; difficulties and dangers of the journey, 54-55; his printed narrative translated into French for Napoleon, 55; his burial-place, 55; his wife, 55; the legend he printed on a rock on the shores of the Pacific, 56; results of his journey, 56.

   Bib.: Voyages from Montreal through the Continent of North America, 1789 and 1793, London, 1801; trans, into French, Paris, 1802. See also his letters, in Roderick McKenzie's Reminiscences (Masson, Bourgeois du Nord-Ouest). For biog., seeWillson, The Great Company; Bryce, Hudson's Bay Company; Burpee, Search for the Western Sea; Laut, Conquest of the Great North-West.