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First Crossing: Alexander Mackenzie, His Expedition Across North America, and the Opening of the Continent
The idea of a navigable route from the Atlantic Ocean or Hudson Bay to the fabulous riches of Cathay took hold in Europe during the 17th century as a variation on the quest for a Northwest Passage. If a strait or channel couldn't be found leading to China, Japan and the Spice Islands, then surely a great 'River of the West' would provide the necessary access.
In the early 1770s fur-trader Samuel Hearne demonstrated, for all but the obsessively deluded, that no strait crossed the continent south of the Arctic Ocean. In 1778, Captain James Cook clarified the scope of the challenge by establishing the position of the west coast as considerably farther west than anyone had imagined. Enter Alexander Mackenzie.
In 1785, this doughty Scot began wintering west of the Great Lakes. Two years later, Mackenzie, an ambitious partner with the North West Company, moved into Athabasca country. From there, inspired by the geographical speculations of Peter Pond (a fellow fur-trader "of dubious character"), Mackenzie began seeking the elusive great River of the West.
In 1789, from Great Slave Lake in the heart of what is today the Northwest Territories, Mackenzie led a canoe expedition down the river that now bears his name. It flowed west and then, to his consternation, veered north, taking him all the way to the Arctic Ocean. He unwittingly became only the second European, after Hearne, to reach the northern coast of the continent.
Four years later, canoeing west out of Lake Athabasca, in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan, Mackenzie tried again. After a strenuous voyage via the Peace, Parsnip, Fraser and West Road rivers, he reached the tidewaters of the Pacific Ocean near Bella Coola.
Now Derek Hayes, rightly admired for his B.C. Book Prize-winning Historical Atlas of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, has produced First Crossing: Alexander Mackenzie, His Expedition Across North America, and the Opening of the Continent (D&M $50).
The title suggests its thesis: Twelve years before the celebrated American expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Alexander Mackenzie became the first person to cross the North American continent north of Mexico. Hayes traces the fur-trader's accomplishment with an attention to detail that should satisfy specialists.
The book is chiefly concerned with Mackenzie and geography, but Hayes ensures Mackenzie's character is also revealed. Mackenzie writes, "...being endowed by Nature with an inquisitive mind and an enterprising spirit; possessing also a constitution and frame of body equal to the most arduous undertakings, and being familiar with toilsome exertions in the prosecution of mercantile pursuits, I not only contemplated the practicability of penetrating across the continent of America, but was confident in the qualifications. ..to undertake the perilous enterprise." Apparently Mackenzie only lacked an editor.
Considerable expertise and resources have been applied to make this splendid book
attractive to a broad general audience, mainly through the use of illustrations, many extending over two pages, and informational sidebars. The roughly 200 illustrations include historical and contemporary photos, engravings, paintings and numerous early maps, many of them speculative. Here we find, published for the first time, the only surviving copy of any maps actually drawn during either of Mackenzie's voyages. One small problem does arise: Hayes analyzes some of the maps in detail, and the book's reproductions, while excellent, are frequently too small to read with the naked eye. Maybe it's just me?
The sidebars focus on everything from pemmican to fixing the precise position of Fort Chipewyan; from country marriages to canoeing in the dark. Oh, and don't miss the vivid description, taken from the diary of a young army engineer, of Mackenzie and his pals succumbing to "the old Highland drinking propensity" and, with great good cheer, drinking themselves under the table.
Hayes is strongest not on social background but on historical and geographical context. In a book about Mackenzie's voyages, he devotes most of an early chapter to Samuel Hearne's singular trek, and much of a later one to the overland expeditions of Sir .John Franklin.
Apart from a tiny miscue (referring to the 16th century when he means the 15th) the only blunder Hayes makes is when he repeats the canard that the reprehensible Robert McClure "made" the final link in the Northwest Passage. This notion is refuted --once and for all, I hope-in Fatal Passage, my own recent book about explorer .John Rae.
Hayes notes that a rugged overland journey of 180 miles (285 km), which Mackenzie covered first in 12 days and later in eight, today takes an expert hiker fifteen days. Yikes! He demonstrates extensive knowledge of his material by mentioning, for example, that the "English Chief" who guided Mackenzie on his first voyage was a Chipewyan named Nestabeck who had once travelled with Hearne's guide, the peerless Matonabbee.
Hayes also squarely addresses the "question of whether Mackenzie 'discovered' anything considering that the places he visited had all been 'discovered' by indigenous peoples..."; His answer? Yes.
Without denigrating the experience of native peoples, he argues convincingly that discovery is dependent on motivation, on vision: a Northwest Passage could only be "discovered" after it had been conceived.
That Alexander Mackenzie discovered no commercially viable River to the West is irrelevant: Cathay was a myth, the fur trade is history and such a river does not exist. First Crossing celebrates an explorer who helped define Canada, both physically and psychologically. That, surely, is enough.1-55054-866-2
Ken McGoogans Fatal Passage: The Untold Story of John Rae, the Arctic Adventurer Who Discovered the Fate of Franklin, has been nominated for the Drainie- Taylor Biography Prize. He is working on a book about Samuel Hearne.
[BCBW Spring 2002]
In the early 1770s fur-trader Samuel Hearne demonstrated, for all but the obsessively deluded, that no strait crossed the continent south of the Arctic Ocean. In 1778, Captain James Cook clarified the scope of the challenge by establishing the position of the west coast as considerably farther west than anyone had imagined. Enter Alexander Mackenzie.
In 1785, this doughty Scot began wintering west of the Great Lakes. Two years later, Mackenzie, an ambitious partner with the North West Company, moved into Athabasca country. From there, inspired by the geographical speculations of Peter Pond (a fellow fur-trader "of dubious character"), Mackenzie began seeking the elusive great River of the West.
In 1789, from Great Slave Lake in the heart of what is today the Northwest Territories, Mackenzie led a canoe expedition down the river that now bears his name. It flowed west and then, to his consternation, veered north, taking him all the way to the Arctic Ocean. He unwittingly became only the second European, after Hearne, to reach the northern coast of the continent.
Four years later, canoeing west out of Lake Athabasca, in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan, Mackenzie tried again. After a strenuous voyage via the Peace, Parsnip, Fraser and West Road rivers, he reached the tidewaters of the Pacific Ocean near Bella Coola.
Now Derek Hayes, rightly admired for his B.C. Book Prize-winning Historical Atlas of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, has produced First Crossing: Alexander Mackenzie, His Expedition Across North America, and the Opening of the Continent (D&M $50).
The title suggests its thesis: Twelve years before the celebrated American expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Alexander Mackenzie became the first person to cross the North American continent north of Mexico. Hayes traces the fur-trader's accomplishment with an attention to detail that should satisfy specialists.
The book is chiefly concerned with Mackenzie and geography, but Hayes ensures Mackenzie's character is also revealed. Mackenzie writes, "...being endowed by Nature with an inquisitive mind and an enterprising spirit; possessing also a constitution and frame of body equal to the most arduous undertakings, and being familiar with toilsome exertions in the prosecution of mercantile pursuits, I not only contemplated the practicability of penetrating across the continent of America, but was confident in the qualifications. ..to undertake the perilous enterprise." Apparently Mackenzie only lacked an editor.
Considerable expertise and resources have been applied to make this splendid book
attractive to a broad general audience, mainly through the use of illustrations, many extending over two pages, and informational sidebars. The roughly 200 illustrations include historical and contemporary photos, engravings, paintings and numerous early maps, many of them speculative. Here we find, published for the first time, the only surviving copy of any maps actually drawn during either of Mackenzie's voyages. One small problem does arise: Hayes analyzes some of the maps in detail, and the book's reproductions, while excellent, are frequently too small to read with the naked eye. Maybe it's just me?
The sidebars focus on everything from pemmican to fixing the precise position of Fort Chipewyan; from country marriages to canoeing in the dark. Oh, and don't miss the vivid description, taken from the diary of a young army engineer, of Mackenzie and his pals succumbing to "the old Highland drinking propensity" and, with great good cheer, drinking themselves under the table.
Hayes is strongest not on social background but on historical and geographical context. In a book about Mackenzie's voyages, he devotes most of an early chapter to Samuel Hearne's singular trek, and much of a later one to the overland expeditions of Sir .John Franklin.
Apart from a tiny miscue (referring to the 16th century when he means the 15th) the only blunder Hayes makes is when he repeats the canard that the reprehensible Robert McClure "made" the final link in the Northwest Passage. This notion is refuted --once and for all, I hope-in Fatal Passage, my own recent book about explorer .John Rae.
Hayes notes that a rugged overland journey of 180 miles (285 km), which Mackenzie covered first in 12 days and later in eight, today takes an expert hiker fifteen days. Yikes! He demonstrates extensive knowledge of his material by mentioning, for example, that the "English Chief" who guided Mackenzie on his first voyage was a Chipewyan named Nestabeck who had once travelled with Hearne's guide, the peerless Matonabbee.
Hayes also squarely addresses the "question of whether Mackenzie 'discovered' anything considering that the places he visited had all been 'discovered' by indigenous peoples..."; His answer? Yes.
Without denigrating the experience of native peoples, he argues convincingly that discovery is dependent on motivation, on vision: a Northwest Passage could only be "discovered" after it had been conceived.
That Alexander Mackenzie discovered no commercially viable River to the West is irrelevant: Cathay was a myth, the fur trade is history and such a river does not exist. First Crossing celebrates an explorer who helped define Canada, both physically and psychologically. That, surely, is enough.1-55054-866-2
Ken McGoogans Fatal Passage: The Untold Story of John Rae, the Arctic Adventurer Who Discovered the Fate of Franklin, has been nominated for the Drainie- Taylor Biography Prize. He is working on a book about Samuel Hearne.
[BCBW Spring 2002]
Submitted on June 15, 2004 in By David.
