July 21, 1793.
Day 74. Excerpts from the journal of Alexander MacKenzie, 227 years ago today, on his epic Voyage to The Pacific Ocean.
“At six we were upon the water, when we cleared the small bay, which we named Porcupine Cove, and steered West-South-West for seven miles, we then opened a channel about two miles and a half wide at South-South-West, and had a view of ten or twelve miles into it. As I could not ascertain the distance from the open sea, and being uncertain whether we were in a bay or among inlets and channels of islands, I confined my search to a proper place for taking an observation.”
In order to complete his incredible quest and fulfill his obligation, MacKenzie needs to take a longitude reading of his “situation”. He will need the weather to cooperate, as he will need clear night skies in order to observe Jupiter’s satellites.
“...a large canoe had lately been in this bay, with people in her like me, and that one of them, whom he called Macubah had fired on him and his friends, and that Bensins had struck him on the back, with the flat part of his sword. He also mentioned another name, the articulation of which I could not determine…”
It is commonly accepted among historians that Macubah is Capt. George Vancouver, and that Bensins, was Archibald Menzies, the expedition’s naturalist. They had been there, anchored in Dean Channel, just seven weeks before. The troublesome fellow then “illustrated these circumstances by the assistance of my gun and sword; and I do not doubt but he well deserved the treatment he described...From his conduct and appearance, I wished very much to be rid of him...”
MacKenzie is very annoyed by “one of them in particular”, and refers to him often as troublesome or “irksome”. He forces his way into the canoe, makes demands and wants to see and even take everything that MacKenzie has with him. Obviously Macubah and Bensins found this man to be very “irksome”, as well.
“At some distance from the land a channel opened up to us, at South-West by West, and pointing that way, he made me understand that Macubah came there with his large canoe.”
Interested history buffs will find many books written on the subject of MacKenzie’s contact with the many natives of this coastal area. The journal itself goes into great details, and the content of it has been analyzed by many historians over the last two hundred years. I have purposely left out a lot of his observations and information, mostly because the purpose behind my blog has been to see if I could determine some of the actual sites of his adventures and encampments, by using his journal entries along with our modern day technology of the internet, and Google Earth. I think I have achieved that purpose, and in the near future I plan to condense and summarize all I have written and learned about, into a video project.
“We had no sooner landed, than we took possession of a rock, where there was not space for more than twice our number, and, which admitted of our defending ourselves with advantage, in case we should be attacked.”
Tomorrow, and forever after that, this rock will be known as “MacKenzie’s Rock”.
“The natives having left us, we made a fire to warm ourselves, and as for supper, there was but little of that, for our whole daily allowance did not amount to what was sufficient for a single meal...I directed the people to keep watch...and laid myself down on my cloak.”
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