June 25, 1793. My Darling Project.

June 25, 1793. Excerpts from the journal of Alexander MacKenzie on this day. 

    

“At one I called up the other watch, and laid down to a small portion of broken rest. At five I arose...Mr. MacKay informed me that the men...had in very strong terms declared their resolution to follow me no further in my proposed enterprise…(I) continued to employ my whole thoughts in...reconciliation...which alone would enable me to procure guides, without whose assistance it would be impossible for me to proceed, when my darling project would end in disappointment.”

     As noted yesterday, the natives are alarmed and frightened by his expedition, and avoiding him. He isn’t sure why, yet. But he knows that he must have local guides to go overland to the sea; to show him the way but especially for the purpose of introducing his expedition to the various first nations, and also for communicating with each group as he encounters them. He also knows that is own men are upset and apprehensive.

     “I now had a meridional altitude, which gave 62.47.51 North latitude.” This is obviously an error and a misprint in the finished book, and one that the editor missed; they are actually at 52.47.51 North. 

     The native people in their state of alarm had left behind a lot of their belongings when they fled; although MacKenzie doesn’t say where exactly he got or found it, he has picked up a bow and quiver. “I ordered four men to...drop down to our guard-house...the rest of us proceeded there by land. When I was yet a considerable distance from the house, and thought it impossible for the arrow to reach it...I very imprudently let fly an arrow, when, to my astonishment and infinite alarm, I heard it strike a log of the house. The men who had just landed, imagined that they were attacked by an enemy from the woods. Their confusion was in proportion to their imaginary danger…”

     It appears that on the way down to the “guard-house” he was just fooling around and decided to try out the bow and arrow. MacKenzie was very surprised when it nearly hit one of his own men, and penetrated into the logs of the habitation. “I found that the arrow had passed within a foot of one of the men; though it had no point, the weapon, incredible as it may appear, had entered an hard, dry log of wood upwards of an inch.”

     He is lucky he didn’t shoot his own man. He was genuinely surprised at the power of the weapon, and the men remarked upon the danger of remaining with a people who had in their possession “such means of destruction”.

Picture 2. Wooden Arrows Sharpened (Reproduction)

Picture 3. Arrow Shafts (19th Century Nez Perce) 

    

     The location of the encampment is near or at the mouth of what we know as Deep Creek, which is actually 52.49.18 North latitude, and is about 3 miles west of Kersley, B.C.  

     “The wind was changeable throughout the day, and there were several showers in the course of it...Mr. MacKay having the first watch, I laid myself down in my cloak.”