Sir Alexander Mackenzie: Encyclopedia Arctica 15: Biographies

Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1763 ?-1820), Canadian fur trader and explorer, was born near Stornoway on the Scottish Isle of Lewis, the largest of the Hebrides. The date of his birth, sometimes given as 1764, was, according to his grandson, 1763. When he was ten his mother died and he and his father came to New York, but, with the outbreak of the American Revolution, the father sent the boy to Montreal to continue his schooling and then enlisted in the King's forces.

In 1779, Mackenzie entered the service of Gregory, McLeod & Company, fur merchants. For the next five years he clerked in their Montreal office, then had one year at Detroit and two years on the Churchill as an active fur trader. When his firm became part of the North West Company, he was promoted to a winter– ing-partnership and sent to take general charge of the Athabaska country, suc– ceeding Peter Pond. Mackenzie had Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabaska built in 1788; it was to be his headquarters for eight years and the place from which he began both his expeditions. In 1789 he went to Great Slave Lake and thence, via the unknown Mackenzie River, to the Arctic Sea (Whale Island; 69° 14′ N.). He called that northward-flowing waterway the Disappointment River, since by it he had hoped to reach the Pacific Ocean.

Mackenzie's calibre and capabilities emerge in the varied activities he pursued between his voyages of discovery: two years (1789-91) were spent con– solidating the trade he had opened up in the Mackenzie River basin — thus proving

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to his partners the economic worth of his journey; then (1791 and 1792), to equip himself for further exploration, he traveled all the way to England, secured the most modern surveying instruments, and, by intensive study, learned to use them easily and accurately.

Mackenzie hurried the long way back to Fort Chipewyan and immediately started on his second voyage, his second attempt to reach the Pacific. This time he was successful and became the first European to cross North America, north of Mexico (1793). By way of the Peace and its tributary, the Parship, his small party reached the continental divide across which lay the headwaters of the Fraser. This they descended as far as the Blackwater, a western tributary. From there they marched overland to the Bella Coola which carried them to an in– let of the Pacific (Dean Channel: 52° 20′ 48′ N.).

At thirty, Mackenzie had completed both of his extraordinary journeys; the rest of his life was spent in the fiercely competitive, bitter, bloody struggle that marked the organization and integration of the fur trade in Canada. For some years he remained in Montreal, acting as an agent for his wintering-partners and sat in the legislative assembly of Lower Canada as a member for Huntingdon. In 1799 he withdrew from the North West Company, joined the XY Company, and, un– til 1804 when it was reunited with the parent firm, he was the acknowledged head of the XY Company. Not until his Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans was published in 1801 were his achievements proclaimed to Europe and the United States; the following year his fame and wealth earned him a knighthood. In 1808 he returned to Scotland and four years later married Geddes Mackenzie (no relation); he had three children: Margaret, Alexander, and George. He died March 12, 1820, at Mulnain (or Mulin– earn), Scotland.

Mackenzie sums up those aspects which motivated morthern exploration in North America: he stands at the end of a long line of French and English ex– plorers who over two centuries had penetrated ever deeper into the continent in their efforts to reach the Pacific by canoe as well as those who tried to sail to the same goal by way of the Northwest Passage; he was a fur trader to whom new territories meant greater returns in pelts and profits; he was a Pedlar, a derisive term applied to the fur traders of the St. Lawrence by their com– petitors, the men of the Hudson's Bay Company.

In an effort to reach the Pacific, Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain marked out the valley of the St. Lawrence. Henry Hudson and, after him, Groseil– liers and Radisson, employees of the Hudson's Bay Company, placed their hopes in Hudson Bay. By the middle of the 18th century, explorers had worked their way through the maze of lakes and rivers and reached far inland: from Montreal the V e ^ é ^ rendryes went as far as the upper Miseouri and the Black Hills of South Dakota, while Henry Kelsey and then Anthony Henday, employees of the Hudson's Bay Company, reached the headwaters of the South Saskatchewan. Both groups sighted the Rockies whose mountain mass would have effectively checked both lines of advance. The situation was radically changed when Fond (1778), following Indian information, crossed the difficult Methye Portage and so bridged the Churchill-Saskatchewan country with the Athabaska country. He had penetrated into the Mackenzie basin whose system of waters was all surmise and hope.

The union of Montreal firms into the North West Company in 1787 ended the murderous competition among them and welded them into an efficient organization that, by coordinating the pemmican trade of the prairies with the fur trade of the forest belt, vastly increased their sphere of operations. This made it pos– sible for Pend to reach the Athabaska country. The new company set standards

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for river navigation and a policy for dealing with new Indian tribes; it created a trained, disciplined corps of assistants; it gave Mackenzie a partnership and sent him to replace the aging Pond.

If the grandiose plan and the investigations preliminary to the exploration of the northwest were Pond's, the execution and final triumphs were Mackenzie's. Both men were moved by the same impulse, the same needs: they were impelled to trace the waterways that would carry them northwestward into - it was hoped – Cook's Inlet (then called Cook's River) so that they might travel overland dir– ectly to the fabulously rich marine fur trade of the Northwest coast which the Russians had discovered. They envisioned establishing a North West Company factory on the Pacific so that their agents could shuttle between their termini and so lighten the burdensome costs of their long lines of transportation. Fur– thermore, new territory was a constant imperative since a region became seriously depleted of its beaver after five years of ruthless exploitation. Mingling with these basic economic factors was the unvanquished dream of the Northwest Passage.

The merger of the independent firms into the North West Company was the first notable step in the process that culminated in the greater union of all the Canadian fur-trading Companies (1821). The economic forces which propelled this union - to combine the territorial franchise granted in its charter to the Hud– son's Bay Company with the matchless personnel and organization of the North West Company - was strenuously opposed by both parties from 1800 to 1821. In this protracted, involved, violent struggle Mackenzie played a leading role; he was its main advocate and, by a variety of means - financial and physical - tried to effect the solution that was finally forced on both reluctant companies by threatened bankruptcy. Mackenzie's contribution to the Union of 1821 (he had died the previous year) was that the new, revitalized Hudson's Bay Company now

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enjoyed a continental domain.

Mackenzie's successes - unmarred by fatality - depended on the superlative organization of the North West Company as well as his own innate qualities. His obedient Canadian crews were trained to a strenuous routine and inured to dangers and hardships; he was properly supplied with provisions and clothing, ammunition and arms for hunting as well as for defense, and his canoe was stocked with trade goods that insured a friendly welcome from new tribes; he was accompanied by Indian hunters, interpreters, and guides. Historically, Mackenzie's voyages have added significance because he relied on the proven techniques of the fur trader - techniques that aolved simply and adequately the demands of food, cloth– ing, shelter, and transportation. Handsome, quiet-mannered, ardent, Mackenzie was a born leader. He believed in his own abilities to realize his hopes and ambitions; his courage could surmount a crisis or sustain him over years of struggle. Endowed with rare qualities of judgment, his authority over his men was natural and acceptable and inspired them with loyalty and determination – yet when necessity demanded it, he drove them as relentlessly as he drove him– self. The mystery of the northwest had challenged Mackenzie and his genius lay in his meeting this challenge and his triumph both as a business man and as an explorer.

First Journey: To The Arctic Sea

With Mackenzie in 1789 went four Canadians, Francois Barrieau, Charles Ducette, Joseph Landry, and Pierre Delorme, two of them attended by their Indian wives; a German, John Steinbruick; an Indian, English Chief, his two wives, and two of his followers; and Laurent le Roux, a clerk in the North West Company. Le Roux accompanied them as far as his poet on Great Slave Lake, carrying addi-

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tional provisions and supplies; the Indians, who had their own small birch– bark canoe, served as interpreters and hunters; while the main party and all their baggage occupoed a regular trader's canoe. English Chief was to be a problem as well as a prop; his man did keep the expedition well cupplied with food but he, himself, seems to have used his wits mainly to try to prevent Mackenzie from pushing on and then to insist on his turning back. The party was supplied with pemmican (it got moldy by mid-July) in case the hunting and fishing should fail, and bags of it were cached at regular intervals to insure their safe return. Hunger never became a matter of concern.

At nine in the morning of June 3, 1789, they left Fort Chipewyan and that first day covered about 36 miles (as far as Le Roux's post the way was known). The schedule Mackenzie set up shows what he expected of the party and what they accomplished as routine performance. The second day between their start at 4 A.M. and their unloading of the canoes at 7:30 P.M. they covered about 80 miles. (Mackenzie computes the distance at 61 miles. In all his estimates of mileage it is important to bear in mind that he was faced with the problem of driving his men and, at the same time, minimizing the distance they had made into the unknown. This consistent underestimating was not corrected when he wrote up his journals, years later.) That day, June 4th, they crossed to the northwest– ern tip of Lake Athabaska where the mouth of the Peace River and the streams flowing from the lake combine to form the Slave, there a mile wide and with a strong current.

The next day they embarked at 3 A.M., portaged six times for a total dis– tance of 2-1/2 rough, arduous miles (passed the Portage des Noyes that marked a dangerous rapids where in 1786 a part of five were drowned), and camped at 5:30 P.M. because the men and the Indians were very tired - having made 30 miles.

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They were getting into their stride. The following morning they were off by 2:30 A.M. Headwinds, weather cold enough to oblige the Indians to use their mittens, rain, and snow made their progress slow. They reached Great Slave Lake on June 9th and, working their way through shoal water inside a long sand– bank, arrived at Le Roux's post. Except near the shore, the lake was still covered with ice; here they had to wait for the way to open, a way unknown save for the mere statement of the traders that somewhere from out the western end of the lake a great river flowed to the west.

Great Slave Lake in 300 miles long and 50 miles wide and though the very day they arrived the rain and wind began to break up the ice, Mackenzie waited only until the 15th to resume his journey. To attempt to cross in a bark canoe a large body of water still heavily packed with immense fields of ice, which were set in motion by sudden spring gales, demands courage, skill, and leadership. Open water led them from island to island, northwestward across the lake; then they followed the north shore to the west and southwest, probing into deep bays – each time hoping that it would lead them to the river. Hosts of mosquitoes tor– mented them even though the weather was far from warm. On June 23rd they met a band of "Red Knife" (Copper or Yellowknife) Indians and in order to save time in circumnavigating the bays, Mackenzie hired one of the Indians to guide him to the river outlet. The guide was worse than useless and finally admitted that it was eight years since he had been in that vicinity; for six exasperating, fruitless days they searched each indentation in vain. Not until June 29th did they locate the 10-mile-wide outlet of the Great Slave Lake. Their first major problem had been solved.

The Mackenzie (as the river is now rightly called) soon narrowed to a half mile in width and a strong current carried them rapidly along between banks of

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yellow clay which were strewn with large quantities of burned wood. A stiff breeze drove them on at a great rate under sail, and Mackenzie was further heartened to note that the river was carrying them to the west. For 300 miles as the river flowed ever westward he continued to hope that he had found the path to the Pacific. On July 2nd the morning was very foggy, and whe, at 9 A.M., it cleared they saw a cluster of mountains, their tops lost in the clouds, stretching as far as they could see to the south. It was a tantalizing sight of the Rockies; ^ but ^ with it came the disappointing realization that the direction of the river had changed, it was now running northward, parallel with the moun– tains. The river was not going to lead them through the mountain barrier to the west.

Northward, swiftly they traveled. The Indians complained of the "persever– ance" with which he pushed forward, they were not accustomed to such unrelenting effort. Everywhere they saw Indian encampments, some recent, some old; the sur– rounding countryside was dotted with small lakes inhabited by great numbers of swans; the only trees were pine and birch, small in size and few in number; at places the current was so strong that it produced a hissing noise like a boiling kettle; the weather which had been almost sultry now turned extremely cold; they were drenched by sudden short thunderstorms, they were plagued by mosquitoes. On July 5th they met five families of Slave and Dog-Rib Indians, who were so panicked by fear at the approach of the white men that they failed to understand their own language when English chief spoke to them. Reassured by gifts - knives, beads, awls, rings, fire-steels, flints, and hatchets - and introduced to tobacco and grog, they soon became over-friendly. Inquiries about the lower river netted Mackenzie the size of their ignorance and the shape of their fears. He was warned that old age would overtake his party before they could reach the sea and return,

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that they would encounter monsters of horrible shape and destructive powers, that they would be stopped by two impossible falls, and that game would become so scarce that they must perish from hunger. It took all of Mackenzie's author– ity and persuasion to convince English Chief of the folly of these combined statements; he succeeded, in consideration of a kettle, an axe, and a knife in inducing one of the Indians to accompany them as guide.

Mackenzie's purpose in securing guides was twofold. As an experienced fur trader he had high respect for the natives' knowledge of their terrain and knew that white men advanced into the unknown along trails known and used by the Indians; he also had, in the living person of the native, a proof and re– assurance of his peaceful motives - it was the surest and quickest way to disarm the suspicions and allay the fears of the tribes into whose territory he had penetrated. And always with these guides who had been momentarily lured out of their terror by priceless gifts of iron and steel there was the difficulty of keeping them with the party; it became necessary to post a guard lest they escape during the night.

The descent of the river presented no problems, no hazards, and their guide served his purpose as a messenger of good will and reconciled them to the numer– ous bands of Indians whom they met. The Indians gave them presents of fish, hares, and partridges and, in turn, were presented with articles which delighted them; they agreed to collect their surplus pelts and have them ready for Mackenzie when he could return upstream in about two months.

On July 7th the river narrowed and for 7 miles ran through the Ramparts, lofty, perpendicular, white rocks. It was as they emerged from this landmark that their guide began to complain, to voice his fears of the Eskimos whom he characterized as a wicked and malignant people. The next day they exchanged this

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guide - he had become so troublesome that they were forced to watch him day and night - for another, only to discover that they had not changed the problem – the new guide was a replica of the old.

Shortly after they had embarked at 4 A.M. (July 10th), both banks became low, the river widened and separated into many channels. They had reached the arctic delta of the Mackenzie. That they were unaware of this important fact, that they were at a loss before the maze of channels that confronted them, must be put down to their being misled by the sight of snowy mountains that stretched to the northward as far as they could see. Only when Mackenzie took an observa– tion later that day that gave him 67° 47′ N. latitude, a northing that surprised him, was he willing to admit to himself that the river he had followed was, to his disappointment, about to empty into the "Hyperborean Sea." If that was the goal, that he was resolved to reach even if it meant their not being able to re– turn to Fort Chipewyan that season. He eat up all night to observe the sun. "At half past twelve I called up one of the men to vew a spectacle which he had never seen before; when, on seeing the sun so high, he ... could scarcely be persuaded by me that the sun had not descended nearer the horizon, and that it was now but a short time past midnight."

It was the very next day, July 12th, that Mackenzie actually discovered the Arctic Sea. The morning began cold with a violent rain. They proceeded on their meandering course through country so naked that scarce a shrub was to be seen (only where the land was high was it covered with grass and flowers), borne by a strong current to the entrance of a "lake." It appeared to be cover– ed with ice; they could see no land ahead. Looking to the west they could dimly see a chain of mountains stretching north beyond the edge of the ice; to the east they saw many islands. The water over which they paddled was still fresh,

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though it felt the ebb and flow of the tide. The lake was the Arctic Sea.

The next five days (July 12-17) Mackenzie spent trying to explore the sweeping, semicircular bay into which the river debouched. He paddled over the treacherous, windswept waters that lay between the icefield and the shore. In his frail bark canoe he crossed the fqce of the delta and at great risk tried to find a path eastward past the islands, past the icefield westward to Bering Strait and the desired Pacific. On July 14th he pursued some whales that came into the bay, "a very wild and unreflecting enterprise." That night whom he camped on one of the islands (Whale Island) he left engraved on a post the lati– tude of the place, his name, the number of persons in his party, and the date. Trying to untangle the riddle of water, land, and ice was made more difficult by the fogs which alternated with heavy winds. Their nets secured them fish and their guns kept them supplied with swans, seese, cranes, and caribou; they found many Eskimo camps, empty of people but filled with their possessions. Everything made by the Eskimos displayed great skill; a square, two=gallon stone kettle beautifully chiseled out of solid rock; canoe and sledge frames made of whale bones fitted, strengthened, and sewn into shape; dishes, troughs, and other utensils. All this they found - but not an Eskimo did they meet whom they could question.

On July 16th they made for the river and stemmed the current; almost immed– iately they left the cold and fogs and winds behind them and, though the change in temperature was agreeable, it brought with it the mosquito menace. The middle of the next afternoon they reached the first spruce tree, which though small, had grown in ground that never thaws deeper than five inches. Proceeding home– ward through the delta they found the valleys and lowlands near the river rich in cranberry bushes and a great variety of plants and herbs unknown to any of

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them. Mackenzie walked along the bank with English Chief; he found it "dis– agreeable and fatiguing [for] though the country is so elevated, it was one continual morass, except on the summits of some barren hills." On July 21st they left "the channels formed by the islands for the uninterrupted channel of the river, where we found the current so strong, that it was absolutely necessary to tow the canoe with a line." Confusion and uncertainly were behind them; before them the river clearly marked their course, the towline enabled them to stem the current better than could have been done with paddles; and that night they en– camped at the spot where they had spent the night of July 9th. The descent of the Mackenzie River from Great Slave Lake had taken 14 days; it would take 38 days to return to that spot. It was a race against the onrushing winter, against the ice that sealed the waters, against the first snow which would fall early in September.

The river had fallen a good three feet since they floated down with its current and now along the broken, stony beach the men marched towing their canoe. Mack– enzie, with English Chief, used this opportunity to make side excursions to near– by Indian bands. On July 22nd he met a group who had contacts with the Eskimos, sometimes warlike, sometimes peaceful, as the latter came inland to hunt caribou and seek flint stones for their spears and arrows. Mackenzie learned that this group had been told by the Eskimos that they had seen "large canoes full of white men to the Westward, eight or ten winters ago, from whom they obtained iron in exchange for leather. The lake where they met these canoes is called by them Belhoullay Toe , or White Man's Lake." Reports of Europeans on the Pacific! Two days later Mackenzie was shown a small river from whose banks, rocky and steep, the Indians and Eskimos collected their flint; here he picked up pieces of yellow petroleum wax. Occasionally a wind from the north enabled the men to change their arduous towing for sailing; repeated entries tell of sultry weather, of insupp ^ o ^ rt-

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able heat seasoned with sudden violent rain and hail storms.

On July 26th Mackenzie heard from a Dog-Rib Indian of another river — on the other side of the mountains to the southwest — that flowed to the Pacific (the Yukon ?). There was no waterway to this river — the natives who knew of it went over the mountains. The next day another Indian drew a map of the north– west, again mentioned a river at whose mouth "there was a Belhoullay Couin, or White Men's Fort. This I took to be Unalasoha Fort, and consequently the river to the West to be Cook's River; and that the body of water or sea into which this river [the Mackenzie] discharges itself at Whale Island, communicates with Norton Sound. I made an advantageous proposition to this man to accompany me across the mountains to the other river, but he refused it." Repeated and in– sistent inquiries netted him tales that were ridiculous and absurd — of a people who had the extraordinary power of killing with their eyes. But - and this may account for the air of tension and strain that runs through the entries for the return journey - Mackenzie was convinced that "the interpreter, who had long been tired of the voyage, might conceal such a part of their communications as, in his opinion, would induce me to follow new routes, or extend my excursions." As the days passed he "found my interpreter very unwilling to ask such questions as were dictated to him, from the apprehension, ... as would prevent him seeing Athabasca this season." It would appear that English Chief fully understood Mackenzie's nature.

Near where the river from Bear Lake empties into the Mackenzie he found (August 2nd) lumps of iron ore, and a short distance beyond he sighted the smoke and inhaled the sulphurous smell of the famous burning lignite banks. As they progressed up the river they found that the water had fallen so much that many shoals were laid bare; day after day they battled the swift current, their labors

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lightened only when a strong aft wind made their sails useful. Food was always to be had; their nets yielded a supply of fish, the hunters brought in game; they picked up pemmican that had been cached, or they gorged on a variety of delicious berries that lined the river banks. They reached the entrance to Great Slave Lake on August 22nd, but the wind was so violent it was not safe to venture out and they camped by the shore; two days later they met Le Roux who had come to meet them and bring news of the Indians who were to have awaited them with their treasure of skins. Until the 27th of August fierce winds kept them tied down. When fine weather set in they started out and three days later had crossed and were at Le Roux's post. There English Chief left to contact the Beaver Indians and induce them to bring their skins to this new station.

September came and with it strong winds, cold rain, and the need to exert every ounce of strength to reach their winter quarters. The entries are bare and brief. On September 10th the rain and hall of the forenoon were followed by snow in the afternoon and a hard freeze during the night. But Fort chipewyan was almost in sight - they arrived back there on September 12th. "Here, then, we concluded this voyage, which had occupied the considerable space of 102 days." Thus precisely and with a strong flavor of disappointment Mackenzie ends his journal of this magnificent voyage. That he had covered 3,000 miles in one short summer and in his canoe, had charted the course of the second longest river in North America were discounted by his not having reached the Pacific. Perhaps it was not so much disappointment as a sense of waste; to a man of such energy and Perseverence, to a man conscious of the strategic importance of being first in a race, this expedition to the Arctic was a false start, wasted time and effort. He still had to find his way to the Pacific - and soon.

Second Voyage: To The Pacific

Mackenzie's second voyage of exploration, though not commemorated by a river named in his honor is, from every aspect, a more brilliant, sustained, and historically significant effort. In the first he had only to find a par– ticular river and follow it to its mouth. In the second he had to give substance and order to vague geographical hints, to reconcile the "great river which is reported to run parallel with and falls into the sea westward of the River in which I voyaged," (spoken of by the Mackenzie River Indians) with the river the Athapaskan Indians had mentioned to Pond, "the Peace River, which descended from the Stoney or Rocky Mountains." To shorten the trail as much as possible, he had a new post built 250 miles west of Fort Chipewyan, at the junction of the Peace and Smoky rivers. He arrived there in October 1792, and there he wintered. His invincible determination is felt in the last letter he dispatched before starting out, enclosing "a couple of guineas; the rest I take with me to traffic with the Russians."

Here, in brief, is the chronology and the route they followed. They started May 9th from the Peace River post to ascend a turbulent river high and angry with spring floods, and by May 18th reached the Peace River canyon where the maddened water tore a canyon path through the Rockies. Three days they spent heroically trying to force their way through and then had three exhausting, perilous days portaging around that impassable section. From May 24th to June 12th they con– tinued up the Peace and thence to the source of its tributary, the Parsnip. On June 12th they crossed the continental divide - carrying their canoe along a beaten path over a low ridge of land "eight hundred and seventeen paces in length" - and reached Bad River, a tributary of the Fraser. Until July 4th they fought an ex– hausting way through a nightmare country of bewildering, shallow streams, deep

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morasses, and tangled forests. Mackenzie had to contend with terrified guides whose only thought was to desert; he had to handle the discontents, the fears, the "fainting spirits" of his subordinates; and, as he reached the large Pacific Coast Indian settlements (he first encountered them along the Fraser), he was almost without the reassuring help of language, for he had gone beyond the lang– uage area of his guides.

Repeatedly warned by the Fraser River Indians that their river was too long and too broken by had fells and rapids to use as a path to the ocean, Mackenzie was forced to the only alternate route suggested. He had his men cache their canoe where the Blackwater joins the Fraser and then, carrying provisions and trade goods, they started for the coast on foot. Their overland march lasted until July 17th, when they straggled into "Friendly Village," the first populous set– tlement on the Bella Coola River. In a borrowed canoe they descended the river to where it flows into the North Bentinck Arm, thence they passed through La Bourchere Channel to Dean Channel and past Cascade Inlet to a point near Elcho Harbor. There, on a rock, in vermilion paint, he wrote: "Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety– three." By a more seven weeks he missed Vancouver, whose boats had (June 3rd) been at that very spot.

From July 17th, when they met their first coastal Indians, to July 26th, when they started back along their overland trail, Mackenzie, single-handed, had to counter the hostile suspicions and aggressive behavior of the natives while at the same time he had to deal with his men who were exhausted and anxious to the point of hysteria. It was his physical and moral strength that happily conquered all difficulties. Their return, along the outward route, was swift and easy; on August 24th they arrived back at the Peace River Fort. It had taken

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them 75 days to reach the Pacific and only 33 to return.

Mackenzie's journals have clarity, color, and well-written passages of exciting narrative. In addition to his been observations on man an nature, to his daily recording of events and experiences, his entries have the precision of a guide book. The volumes, which have been often reprinted, include "An account of the rise and State of the fur trade" — a rich source for the details of the economy and the aborigines of the Canadian North as they existed at the close of the 18th century.

Jeannette Mirsky