|
Lewis and Clark are universally acclaimed as the first white men to have crossed the North American Continent. Yet, in 1793 an unassuming Scotsman by the name of Alexander Mackenzie beat them to it. Mackenzie was a fur trader for the Canadian owned North West Company. In 1789 he determined to find a Northwest passage through the Rocky Mountains all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
In the Summer of 1789 Mackenzie set off with eight men and four Indian wives from a trading post on Lake Athabasca in what is now northern Alberta. In three birch back canoes they paddled up the Slave River to Great Slave River. From there they entered another river ( which was to be named after Mackenzie himself) which swung to the north at the beginning of the Rocky mountains. For forty days the small band drifted along through terrain that became more and more foreboding. Finally the great river emptied them into an ocean. The salty waters were filled with ice. It didn’t take Mackenzie long to realise that he had reached, not the Pacific, but the Arctic Ocean.
Mackenzie headed back for his start point at Lake Athabasca. He was desperate to get their before the onset of winter. He managed to get home ahead of winter but his employers, the North West Company, who had invested in him in hopes that he would open up new territory for them, were not at all pleased with the failure of Mackenzie’s attempts to reach the Pacific Ocean. Four years later, however, they decided to give him one last chance. Now equipped with nine men in a single 25 foot birch canoe, Mackenzie set out in May, 1793 from Fort Fork along the Peace River which headed in a south westerly direction.
The Peace River slowly wound it’s way west and into the Rocky Mountains. As it did so the river became a narrow stream full of hazardous rocks during one stretch and tumbling white water during the next. During parts of the trip, the canoe had to be hauled overland, once for a whole week. At one point the canoe was capsized as it tried to negotiate the ferocious rapids of the Fraser River. The nine adventurers found themselves floundering in the raging waters. Luckily, a current swept the men into some shallow waters, saving them from certain death.
The men had saved their lives, but their canoe was lost. In a state of exhaustion they head westward over the Coast mountains. They eventually came across some friendly Indians, the Bella Coola. They managed to get a ride in the canoes of these Indians which took them to an arm of the Pacific Ocean. Mackenzie had found the Northwest Passage but the route that he had travelled had almost killed his band. It was useless as a general passage. He set back to his base at Fort Fork. He tried to convince his employers to let him try just one more time to find an easy route to the Pacific. They turned him down point blank. Mackenzie left the employ of the Northwest Company and set off for England in an attempt to drum up support for his quest. In 1801 he published a book entitled ‘Voyages From Montreal.’ In it he included the journals of his two expeditions. The British crown, however, was not interested. However someone else was. Thomas Jefferson was fascinated by Mackenzie’s account. In fact, when he sent his own explorers out to conquer the West three years later, he made sure that a copy of MacKenzie’s book went along with them.
|
| |
