June 27, 1793. An Absolute Wreck.

June 27, 1793.  (Day 50)

Excerpts from the Journal of Alexander MacKenzie, 227 years ago, today.

 

     “We embarked at half past four, with very favourable weather, and at eight we landed, where there was an appearance of our being able to procure bark; we, however, obtained but a small quantity. At twelve we went ashore again, and collected as much as was necessary for our purpose. It now remained for us to fix on the proper place for building another canoe, as it was impossible to proceed with the old one, which was become an absolute wreck.”

     The “old” birch bark canoe, with many many repairs, has lasted them for 50 days so far, and has carried them over one thousand river miles through uncharted wilderness.

     “At five in the afternoon we came to a spot well adapted to the business in which we were about to engage. It was on a small island not much encumbered with wood, though there was plenty of the spruce kind on the opposite land, which was divided from us by a small channel. We now landed, but before the canoe was unloaded and the tent pitched, a violent thunder-storm came on, accompanied with rain, which did not subside till the night had closed in upon us.” 

They will be spending a few days here on this island, while all hands engage in building a new vessel, except for the two hunters who will look for game and try to catch fish.

Picture 1. Building a Birch-Bark Canoe, Lake Of The Woods, 1901 (Photo by Minnesota Historical Society)

     “Two of our men who had been in the woods for axe-handles, saw a deer, and one of them shot at it, but unluckily missed his aim. A net was also prepared and set in the eddy at the end of the island.”

June 26, 1793. Our Blind Guide.

June 26, 1793. Our Blind Guide. (Day 49)

Excerpts from the Journal of Alexander MacKenzie, on his epic Voyage of Discovery.

     “At midnight a rustling noise was heard in the woods which created a general alarm, and I was awakened to be informed of the circumstance, but heard nothing. At one I took my turn of the watch, and our dog continued unceasingly to run backwards and forwards along the skirts of the wood in a state of restless vigilance.” 

      Good boy! “Our Dog” is doing his job. 

     “At two in the morning the centinel informed me, that he saw something like an (sic) human figure creeping along on all-fours about fifty paces above us...when day appeared, it proved to be an old, grey haired, blind man...too infirm to join in the flight of the natives to whom he belonged...I immediately led him to our fire...and gave him something to eat...he had not tasted food for two days.” 

       Now he has someone to question. 

     “I requested him to acquaint me with the cause of that alarm which had taken place...a few days past. He replied, that very soon after we had left them, some natives arrived from above, who informed them that we were enemies; and our unexpected return, in direct contradiction to our own declarations, confirmed them in that opinion....We gave him the real history of our return, as well as the desertion of our guide...

    So now he knows the reason why; but he also realizes that he cannot pursue this journey without a guide to introduce him. And there is no one else around for him to enlist, so a blind guide will have to do.

   “In consequence of these communications, I deemed it altogether unnecessary to lose any more time at this place, and I informed the old man that he must accompany me for the purpose of introducing us to his friends and relations…”

     The old man said if he wasn’t blind he would gladly go on as a guide, but when MacKenzie insists that he is coming along anyways, even though he “expressed his wishes to be excused from this service…”

     “At seven in the morning we left this place, which I named Deserter’s River or Creek. Our blind guide was, however, so averse to continuing with us, that I was under the very disagreeable necessity of ordering the men to carry him into the canoe; and this was the first act during my voyage, that had the semblance of a violent dealing.” 

     It sounds like he is kidnapping the incapacitated elder, however he does intend to return him to his people as they journey west. Nowadays Deserter’s Creek is a popular hiking spot, leading through a canyon to a spectacular waterfall. 

Picture 1. Deserter’s Creek Falls

 “About three in the afternoon we perceived a lodge at the entrance of a considerable river on the right…a small river on the left”

     That considerable river is the Quesnel River, and he is now (again) at the present day site of the city of Quesnel, B.C.  

     “Throughout the whole of this day the men had been in an extreme state of ill-humour, and...they disputed and quarrelled among themselves. About sun-set the canoe struck upon the stump of a tree, which broke a large hole in her bottom; a circumstance that gave them an opportunity to let loose their discontents without reserve. I left them…(I was) in a state of mind which I scarce wish to recollect, and shall not attempt to describe.” 

      He needs a bit of time to himself, as do his frustrated and distressed men.

     “At this place there was a subterraneous house, where I determined to pass the night.”

Picture 2. A Pit House. BC Archive photo.

Picture 3. Photo cr. Canadian Encyclopedia.

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.”

June 24, 1793. Mysterious Business.

June 24, 1793.

It is interesting to note that today the 24th of June is not marked in MacKenzie’s journal, perhaps when the notes were transcribed for publishing, the title of this day’s entry was overlooked. After describing his retiring for the night on the 23rd, the next paragraph begins without a title...

     “We were in our canoe by four this morning, and passed by the Indian hut, which appeared in a state of perfect tranquility…”

     Only some of them are in the canoe. The others including Mr. MacKay had gone with the local guide the night before, who was “impatient to get to his family, in order to prepare shoes, and other necessaries, for his journey...he would not stop till ten at night.” 

They are supposed to meet up with the canoe and the rest of the men before noon. 

     

     The men on shore had spent the night “exhausted with fatigue, and without any kind of covering: they were cold, wet, and hungry, but dared not light a fire…This comfortless spot they left at the dawn of the day…”

But the canoe did not arrive at the rendezvous in time.  

     “To heighten their misery, as they did not find us at the place appointed, they concluded that we were all destroyed, and had already formed their plan to take to the woods...to the waters of the Peace River, a scheme which could only be suggested by despair. They intended to have waited for us till noon, and if we did not appear by that time, to have entered without further delay on their desperate expedition.” 

     Again, MacKenzie has detailed and colourful descriptions of the communication and interactions with the local people on this day.  To understand what happened I suggest interested readers follow his account for themselves. Basically, the natives are now alarmed, even the ones he has visited, and he is not sure why. “I hoped to find the two men, with their families, whom we had seen there...when I should wait the issue of this mysterious business.”

     He has the canoe loaded, and fastened to two strong “piquets”, so they have only to step on board and be ready to leave straight away, if necessary. The canoe they are using is a North-West Company 25 foot, Canot Du Nord.  Picture 1 is a detailed HBC schematic showing the typical lading of the much larger 36 foot Canot Du Maitre. The contents of MacKenzie’s would have been similar to this, although probably only about one half of the quantities of items shown in the drawing. 

Picture 1. Large Canoe Schematic. (Canadian Canoe Museum) 

     

     “Mr. MacKay and myself, with three men kept alternate watch, and allowed the Indians to do as they fancied. I took the first watch, and the others laid down in their clothes by us...The weather was cloudy, with showers of rain.”

June 23, 1793. Roasted Fish.

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.

June 22, 1793. A Retrograde Motion.

June 22, 1793. 227 Years Ago, To-day.

     “At six in the morning we proceeded on our voyage...Our courses were (11 ¼ miles)...the country, on the right, presented a very beautiful appearance…We now landed near a house...Our stay did not exceed half an hour...From this place we steered (2 ¾ miles) when we landed again on seeing some natives on the high ground...they approached us one after another...I shook hands with them all, and desired my interpreters to explain that salutation as a token of friend-ship….They immediately invited us to pass the night at their lodges.”

     He has found a village of friendly natives who, along with their hospitality, are about to give him the intelligence he seeks regarding the best route to the sea. In short, they tell him that he should not go any further downstream; that the river is impassable and the natives of it are not friendly. His description of these meetings are very detailed, including some attempts at language translations, and I strongly suggest that anyone interested in the topic should read MacKenzie’s journal entries of these days, for themselves.   

    

      “These people describe the distance across the country as very short to the Western ocean; and according to my own idea, it cannot be above five or six degrees.”

     One degree of longitude is equal to about 69 miles, at the equator, decreasing as you go north or south from it. Google Earth shows that he is actually 300 miles as the crow flies from the coast, at this latitude, or about 7 degrees of longitude.

Picture 1. MacKenzie’s Map of 1801. Note that he has marked the river as the  Columbia. In just a few years, Simon Fraser will be the one to disprove that. 

      “According to their account, this way is so often travelled by them, that their path is visible throughout the whole journey, which lies along small lakes and rivers. It occupied them, they said, no more than six nights, to go to where they meet the people who barter iron, brass, copper, beads, etc...for skins. The iron is about eighteen inches of two-inch bar. To this they give an edge at one end…”

     He has to make a momentous decision now; should he continue on down this river, or follow the advice of these natives and try to go overland to the sea? 

     “I had no more than thirty days provision remaining...besides our ammunition would soon be exhausted, particularly our ball, of which we had not more than a hundred and fifty…”

Picture 2. Carved wooden statues at Hudson’s Hope, B.C.  honouring MacKenzie.

     “I now called those of my people about me...and after passing a warm eulogium on their fortitude, patience, and perseverance, I stated the difficulties that threatened our continuing to navigate the river, the length of time it would require, and the scanty provisions we had for such a voyage: I then proceeded for the foregoing reasons to propose a shorter route, by trying the overland road to the sea.” 

     He seems to have already made his decision, but he still needs to convince his men that it's the right choice.  

     “To carry this project into execution I must (return a considerable distance up the river)...as in a voyage of this kind, a retrograde motion could not fail to cool the ardour, slacken the zeal, and weaken the confidence of those, who...follow the conductor of it. Such was the state of my mind at this period…distressed and distracted.”

June 21, 1793. Buried Treasure.

June 21, 1793. 227 Years Ago, To-day. Alexander MacKenzie:

       “As I was very sensible of the difficulty of procuring provisions in this country, I thought it prudent to guard against any possibility of distress of that kind on our return; I therefore ordered ninety pounds weight of pemmican to be buried in a hole, sufficiently deep to admit of a fire over it without doing any injury to our hidden treasure…”

     He is pretty sure that he will be returning this way and he knows that they will need the food even more on their way back. Burying some pemmican deep under ground will keep it safe from predators, and the fire on top of it will hide the fact. 

      It is essentially pounded dried meat mixed 1:1 with melted fat such as suet that has been rendered into tallow. In some cases, dried berries were pounded into powder and then added to the meat/fat mixture. The resulting mixture is then packed into rawhide bags and sewn shut for storage where it would cool, and then harden. A bag of bison pemmican weighed about 90 lb, and stored this way would easily keep from one to five years.

(Picture 1).

“The morning was very cloudy, and at four o’clock we renewed our voyage (6 ¼ miles) where a large river flowed in from the left, and a smaller one from the right...We then continued (6 miles), the cliffs of blue and yellow clay, displaying the same grotesque shapes as those which we passed yesterday...The latitude by observation was 52.47.51 North.“

      The large river on their left this morning is The Quesnel River, which joins the Fraser in the city of Quesnel. The smaller river on the right is today known as Baker Creek, and it also flows through the city to join the Fraser from the west. 

     Most of the journal account of this day describes in great detail his meetings and discourse with natives, and his attempt at getting information from them. I would strongly suggest that anyone interested in this topic, to fully read his account of it. He is trying to get as much knowledge as he can regarding which route he must now take in order to reach the sea. 

     “According to their account, this river, whose course is very extensive, runs toward the midday sun; and that at its mouth...white people were building houses...” Captain Cook had arrived on that south coast of what is now B.C. in 1778, 15 years before this, and by 1785 and the decade following, British merchants made a sustained attempt to develop a fur trade in the coastal area. Iron bars were traded for furs by James Hanna in 1785. The term “house” has a slightly different meaning to a fur trader than it might to us. Think of Cumberland House, or Rocky Mountain House, famous trading posts that were named that way.  

     They also described dangers that are waiting for anyone attempting to go downstream.  “...they represented its current to be uniformly strong, and that in three places it was altogether impassable, from the falls and rapids, which poured along between perpendicular rocks…” He has been warned of the lower river being impassable, and the account he was given is an accurate description of what later explorers (and us) will come to know as The Fraser Canyon. 

     “Our canoe was now become so weak, leaky, and unmanageable, that it became a matter of absolute necessity to construct a new one…” The inadequacy of their vessel is mentioned in his journals every day now, and very soon they will have to do something about this ongoing problem. Looking back at what they have been through in the last 44 days with this hand made canoe, is a testament to the intestinal fortitude and courage of these men, and also says a lot about the strength and resilience of a well made birch-bark canoe.  

Picture 2. Birchbark Canoe. Original art by Lewis Parker.