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Alexander Mackenzie
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Alexander Mackenzie was the first white man to view the western seas from the shores of northwestern North America, preceding the more widely known Lewis and Clark expedition by more than 12 years. Mackenzie and his party trekked overland from the Fraser River, across the Interior Plateau, through the Rainbow Mountains and down Burnt Bridge Creek. Where the creek enters the Bella Coola River, they rested at a community which was dubbed "Friendly Village" because of the hospitality of its Nuxalk inhabitants. These people guided Mackenzie and his men down the river into Dean Channel. A dispute between the Nuxalk and the coastal Heiltsuk people prevented them from reaching the open sea, but Mackenzie was satisfied that his mission was complete.
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Alexander Mackenzie was the third of ten sons, three of whom died as infants. The family was not well off, as frequent moves, from Logierait to Edinburgh and then in turn to Perth, Pitlochry, and Dunkeld, attested. Mackenzie’s father was trying to improve his job prospects through these moves. He had done well as a carpenter during the high employment of the Napoleonic Wars; perhaps this success had expedited his marriage in 1817. However, employment and wage expectations had declined thereafter and by the 1830s his health was precarious. His death in 1836, at the age of 52, made the family’s position difficult.
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Alexander Mackenzie took over Pond’s House from 1787 to 1789. One of his first decisions was to send two men, McLeod and Boyer, overland to meet the Beaver Indians and to build a post on the Peace River. This Boyer did, near Fort Vermilion, to become the first white man on record ever to see the Peace. Brian Hitchon, writing in his book Alberta: a Natural History, says that Pond had "sent a man to stand on the banks of the Peace." Mackenzie was a hustler. In 1789 he sent his cousin Roderick to build a new headquarters at the first Fort Chipewyan on Athabasca Lake. There, fish were plentiful to supplement the uncertain supply of game.
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This compendium of material on the prominent explorer of northern and western Canada, Alexander Mackenzie, is invaluable as a reference. It contains the principal particulars of Mackenzie's action-packed life, especially as seen through the Voyages from Montreal (1801) which are printed here as journals. The journal of the first voyage survives in a manuscript copy; the journal of the second voyage... only survives as Mackenzie printed it in his 1801 book. Lamb adds important notations, and he identifies all the main personages mentioned by Mackenzie. Mackenzie was a fine draughtsman, and the engravings of his maps, approved by Mackenzie for printing, are included here. This book also prints Mackenzie's surviving correspondence with various persons, most notably his cousin Roderick, other traders and bankers, and various government officials.
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Alexander Mackenzie was born in Stornoway, on the isle of Lewis. Hoping to find a better life in the New World he joined the Northwest Fur Company 1779 and in 1788 established Fort Chipewayan on Lake Athabasca. He discovered what would later be named the Mackenzie River in 1789. At the time he named it the 'Disappointment' as it led to the Arctic sea rather than the Pacific. His adventurous spirit was not crushed and he went on to become the first European to cross the North American continent. He received a knighthood in 1802 and died in the land of his birth.
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Alexander Mackenzie was born in the year of 1764 at Stornway in the Hebrides, Scotland. Mackenzie's father Kenneth Mackenzie was married to Mary .The two had four children and they were: Alexander, Sybilla, Margaret and Murdoch (Alexander's older brother). Murdoch was a ship surgeon . He was near Halifax when he drowned from a shipwreck . The family moved to New York in 1774 . In 1776 they moved to Montreal during the American Revolution . Mary died when Alexander was only 10 years old. Kenneth died few days later from scurvy. Mackenzie moved in with his aunts. He disliked them.When he was 15 years old he left them.
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Alexander Mackenzie