June 23, 1793. 227 Years Ago To-day.
“At ten in the morning we embarked, and went up the current much faster than I expected with such a crazy vessel as that which carried us.”
They still haven’t built a new canoe; I think he’s realized that he is going to be traveling overland to the ocean anyways so he is trying to make this “crazy vessel” last as long as possible, in order to save time.
Again, the journal entry of today features his thoughts and opinions on the people he has met, and his communications with them. Anyone interested in this should read the full entry of this encounter, if not the entire book.
The place where he got the information from the natives to turn around was marked by him. “Mr MacKay, by my desire, engraved my name, and the date of the year on a tree.”
Years later (1821) a trading post will be built here, and subsequently named after him. Fort Alexandria was the last post ever built by the Northwest Co., just prior to their merger with the HBC. The buildings were demolished in 1915.
Picture 1. Fort Alexandria prior to 1915.
The Fort is long gone now of course but the location is marked by a cairn along the Cariboo Highway.
Picture 2.
Paddling back upstream against this great river is harder than he had hoped.
“The men worked very hard, and though I imagined we went ahead very fast, we could not reach the lodges, but landed for the night at nine, close to the encampment of two families...we had formerly seen at the lodges. I immediately went and sat down with them, when they gave me some roasted fish…We...went to rest in a state of perfect security...”
Picture 3. Roasting Fish on Fire. Photo by Outdoor Traditionalist.
No comments:
Post a Comment