mind that his object was to trace the mighty river that afterward bore
his name to its mouth. He had no certain knowledge where it might
empty--perhaps into the Arctic, possibly into the Pacific. In any case
it involved a long journey, with all sorts of possible difficulties,
human and natural; and as he must travel light, with only a limited
supply of provisions, it was essential that he should go and return in
one season--the very short season of these far northern latitudes. The
natives whom he questioned ridiculed the idea of descending the
Mackenzie to its outlet and returning the same season. They assured him
that it would take him the entire season to go down; that winter would
overtake him before he could begin the return journey; and that he would
certainly perish of cold or starvation, even if he escaped the hostile
tribes of the lower waters of the river.
Mackenzie was confident that the journey could be made in the season,
but to succeed they must travel at top speed. He had picked men with
him, and it was fortunate that he had, for the pace was almost killing.
Half-past three in the morning generally saw them in the canoes and off
for a long day's hard paddling. One day they paddled steadily from
half-past two in the morning until six in the evening, except short
stops for meals, covering seventy-two miles in spite of a head wind.
When they reached Great Slave Lake, they found it almost entirely
covered with ice, though it was now the ninth of June. Coming down Slave
River they had been tortured with mosquitoes and gnats, and the trees
along the banks were in full leaf. This violent change was
characteristic of the north. Five precious days were lost waiting for
the ice to move, so that they might cross the lake. At last a westerly
wind opened a passage, and after some perilous adventures they made the
northern shore. Coasting slowly to the westward, about the end of the
month they rounded the point of a long island, and Mackenzie found
himself on the great river. The current increased as they travelled
down stream, and it was possible to make good progress.
On they went, day after day. July 1st they passed the mouth of what the
Indians called the River of the Mountain, afterward known as the Liard,
where Fort Simpson was built many years later. As they proceeded, it
became clear to Mackenzie that the river down which he was paddling must
empty into the Arctic--but would it be possible to reach the ocean and
return to Fort Chipewyan that season? The men were beginning to get
discouraged, and it required all Mackenzie's enthusiasm and strength of
purpose to keep them to the strenuous task. The tribes they met as they
went north--Slaves and Dog-ribs and Hare Indians--did not prove as
ferocious as they had been represented, but they one and all described
the dangers of the river below as stupendous. The _voyageurs_ grumbled,
but did not openly rebel. As for the Indians of Mackenzie's party, they
were in open terror; expected at every turn of the river to come upon
some of the fearful monsters of which the Slaves or Dog-ribs had warned
them, and were only kept from deserting by Mackenzie's overmastering
will. As they approached the mouth of the river, another terror was
added--fear of meeting the Eskimos, for Indian and Eskimo were at deadly
enmity. Altogether, the plucky explorer had troubles enough.
On the second of July he came within sight of the Rocky Mountains, whose
glistening summits the Indians called _Manetoe aseniah_, or
spirit-stones, and the following day he camped at the foot of a
remarkable hill, constantly referred to in the narratives of Sir John
Franklin, Richardson, and other later explorers, as the "Rock by the
River Side." There is an admirable drawing of the rock, by Kendall, in
the narrative of Franklin's second voyage.
A few days later Mackenzie passed the mouth of Bear River, draining that
huge reservoir, Great Bear Lake, whose discovery remained for later
explorers to accomplish, and about one hundred and twenty-five miles
below he came to the Sans Sault Rapids--the fearful waterfall against
which the natives had warned him. As a matter of fact it can be safely
navigated at almost any season of the year.
Another thirty miles brought the explorer to the afterward famous
Ramparts of the Mackenzie. Here the banks suddenly contract to a width
of five hundred yards, and for several miles the travellers passed
through a gigantic tunnel, whose walls of limestone rose majestically on
either side to a height of from one hundred and twenty-five to two
hundred and fifty feet.
At last they reached the delta of the river, and it was well that they
were so near their destination, for the Indians were thoroughly
demoralised and the _voyageurs_ dispirited, provisions were running
perilously low, and the short northern summer was rapidly drawing to its
close. On July 12th the party emerged from the river into what seemed
to Mackenzie to be a lake, but which was really the mouth of the river.
The following day confirmation of this came with the rising tide, which
very nearly carried off the men's baggage while they slept. Paddling
over to an island, which he named Whale Island, to commemorate an
exciting chase after a school of these enormous animals the previous
day, Mackenzie erected a post, on which he engraved the latitude of the
spot, his own name, the number of persons he had with him in the
expedition, and the time spent on the island.
After a fruitless attempt to get in touch with the Eskimo, Mackenzie
turned his face to the south, and, after a comparatively uneventful
journey, arrived at Fort Chipewyan on September 12th, after a voyage of
one hundred and two days. He had explored one of the greatest rivers of
America, from Great Slave Lake to the Arctic, and he had added to the
known world a territory greater than Europe. Nor was this all, for
Mackenzie's journey to the Arctic was but the introduction to his even
more difficult, and more momentous, expedition of three years later,
over the mountains to the shores of the Pacific. This, however, does not
lie within the compass of the present sketch.
BOYLE, SON AND WATCHURST
PRINTERS,
3-5 WARWICK SQUARE, E.C.