July 22, 1793. From Canada, By Land.

July 22, 1793. DAY 75. 

Monday-22--

     “This morning the weather was clear and pleasant; nor had anything occurred to disturb us throughout the night. Soon after eight in the morning, I took five altitudes for time…I was determined not to leave this place, except I was absolutely compelled to do it, till I had ascertained its situation...that I would not stir till I had accomplished my object; at the same time, to humour their fears, I consented that they should put everything into the canoe, that we might be in a state of preparation to depart…” 

     

     The crew is very agitated and afraid, not to mention hungry, but they have to wait until MacKenzie has completed here what he set out to do.

     “I now mixed up some vermilion in melted grease, and inscribed, in large characters, on the South-East face of the rock on which we had slept last night, this brief memorial--”Alexander MacKenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three.”

Picture 1. MacKenzie’s Rock

     “My altitude, by an artificial horizon, gave 52°21’33”; that by the natural horizon was 52°20’48” North latitude...I had observed an emersion (sic) of Jupiter’s third satellite, which gave 8°32’21. difference of longitude. I then observed an emersion (sic) of Jupiter’s first satellite, which gave 8°32’2. Which is equal to 128.2. West of Greenwich.  

     The actual latitude of MacKenzie’s Rock is 52° 22’ 46” N. The actual longitude is 127°28’12” W. 

     “I had now determined my situation, which is the most fortunate circumstance of my long, painful, and perilous journey...As soon as I had completed my observations, we left this place: it was then ten o’clock in the afternoon. We returned the same way we came…”

     The journey is over, at least for the purpose of this blog; but it’s not quite over for MacKenzie and his men. He still has to “return the same way we came” and retrace the past 75 days journey all the way back to Fort Fork, where they started this amazing voyage on May 9th; and from there another 500 or so river miles down to Fort Chipewyan, before the brutal winter sets in. The “book” will not be written until he gets back to Britain, and won’t be published for another eight years, in 1801. When it is published, though, he will become knighted for his accomplishments; Sir Alexander MacKenzie will become a celebrity of his time. Other 19th century celebs liked it too; Napoleon loved it so much that he took a french translation with him to his exile in Saint Helena. 

     This has been an incredible journey for me as well, writing these daily blogs has been a pleasant daily routine, and an incredible learning exercise, on a wide range of topics. Although I’m not going to post the return journey in real-time, I am going to read it, as I’m sure many of you will. I will continue my blog; although probably not daily, so please subscribe to it if you haven’t already. I will definitely be posting more Backyard History. Also, thank you to everyone who has read and followed along on this project. I really appreciate all of the positive comments I have received; but I won’t take much credit for it, because MacKenzie wrote the wonderful words, Google supplied almost all of the photos, maps and of course the Google Earth images, in addition to providing the platform for publishing the blog. As for my own additions and musings, they are my humble opinions, for the most part, and should be treated as such, rather than be accepted as any type of scientific fact. I’m sure I have made many mistakes, and for that I ask for the reader’s understanding, and I hope for the feedback to correct me. I think I did my due diligence, though and there were many “aha!” moments; every time I found a place or a land-mark on Google Earth and it would be just as MacKenzie described it 227 years ago.  The preface to his remarkable published work states:

     “I have described whatever I saw with the impressions of the moment which presented it to me. The successive circumstances of my progress are related without exaggeration or display. I have seldom allowed myself to wander into conjecture; and whatever conjecture has been indulged, it will be found, I trust, to be accompanied with the temper of a man who is not too disposed to think too highly of himself.”

      Hopefully I’ve done the same. MacKenzie has crossed the entire continent, by canoe and on foot, from Montreal to the Dean Channel and tide-water of the Pacific, twelve years before the U.S. Government sponsored Lewis and Clark to cross America overland. In fact they actually used MacKenzie’s journals and maps to help them succeed. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this journey, and also of MacKenzie’s previous 1789 Voyage to the Frozen Sea, is that no one got killed, or died. Not one of his men, his many guides, nor any of the people he came in contact with suffered any fatal injury, accidental death or even drowning.  It is his legacy that he never lost a man, caused anyone harm, nor was any blood shed. This was practically unheard of amongst the explorers of his time. 

Picture 2. Tourist snaps photo of MacKenzie’s Rock.

Picture 3. MacKenzie’s Rock and Cairn, erected 1926.

The rock near the water’s edge still bears his words, as they were permanently inscribed in the rock by the surveyors who first found it. A prominent 40-foot cairn stands above the rock, and a plaque was erected in 1926 by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Picture 4. MacKenzie’s Rock.

Picture 5. Monument at MacKenzie’s Rock.

What incredible history is in your backyard? Maybe Google can help you find out. 

The End.

   * * *

July 21, 1793. Macubah And Bensins.

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.”

July 20, 1793. Poignards And Daggers.

July 20, 1793. excerpts from the journal of Alexander MacKenzie. (censored)

     “At an early hour this morning, I was again visited by the chief, in company with his son. The former complained of a pain in his breast; to relieve his suffering, I gave him a few drops of Turlington’s Balsam on a piece of sugar; and I was rather surprised to see him take it without the least hesitation. When he had taken my medicine, he requested me to follow him…”

      Although MacKenzie fancies himself as a healer, or a doctor even, this is the 18th century after all. His dubious remedies and cures, such as this patent medicine, are likely not as remedial as the natives’ own practices might have been.

Picture 1. Turlington’s Balsam Of Life, patented 1754.

 (Clear glass bottle found in Canada in 1961; photo Canadian Geographic)

      MacKenzie is then asked to go and tend to one of the sons of the chief, who is very sick with various ailments. He gives him a similar treatment, but it doesn’t really seem to help the poor suffering man. Again, there is a lot going on and this chapter is quite descriptive, but beyond me to summarize it all here. 

     “After I had observed these culinary preparations, I paid a visit to the chief, who presented me with a roasted salmon, he then opened one of his chests, and took out a garment of blue cloth, decorated with brass buttons; and another of flowered cotton, which I supposed were Spanish…Copper and brass are in great estimation among them, and of the former they have great plenty: they point their arrows and spears with it, and work it up into personal ornaments; such as collars, ear-rings, and bracelets, which they wear...They also abound in iron. I saw some of their twisted collars of that metal that weighed upwards of twelve pounds. It is generally beat in bars of fourteen inches in length, and one inch three quarters wide. The brass is in thin squares; their copper is in larger pieces...They have various trinkets; but their manufactured iron consists only of poignards and daggers. Some have...very neat handles, with a silver coin of a quarter or eighth dollar fixed on the end of them...”

     The Spanish had been trading on the Pacific coast (of USA and Canada), at least since the voyage of Perez in 1774, 19 years before MacKenzie’s arrival.

Picture 2. 18th Century Spanish Dagger. (source photo- Ebay)

Picture 3. 18th Century Poignard. (Photo Wikipedia)

     “When I produced my instruments to take an altitude, I was desired not to make use of them. I could not then discover the cause of this request, but I experienced the good effect of the apprehension, which they occasioned, as it was very effectual in hastening my departure...I now discovered that they had entertained no personal fear of the instruments, but they were apprehensive that the operation of them might frighten the salmon from that part of the river. The observation taken in this village gave me 52.25.52 North latitude.”

     This time he is a little off in his latitude reckoning, probably due to the “apprehension” of people around him. The actual latitude of Bella Coola is 52.22.19 N. 

     “...about ten winters ago he went a considerable distance toward the mid-day sun…when he saw two large vessels full of such men as myself, by whom he was kindly received: they were, he said, the first white people he had seen. They were probably the ships commanded by Captain Cook.” Cook had been to the coast of B.C., although he landed much farther south, in 1778.

     “This canoe was built of cedar, was forty-five feet long, four feet wide, and three and a half in depth. It was painted black and decorated with white figures of fish of different kinds. The gunwale, fore and aft, was inlaid with the teeth of the sea-otter.”(1) As Captain Cook has mentioned, that the people of the sea-coast adorned their canoes with human teeth, I was more particular in my inquiries; the result of which was, the most satisfactory proof that he was mistaken; but his mistake arose from the very great resemblance there is between human teeth and those of the sea-otter.”

July 19, 1793. Six Miles An Hour.

July 19, 1793. (Chapter IX) Day 72.

    

“At one in the afternoon we embarked, with our small baggage, in two canoes, accompanied by seven of the natives. The stream was rapid, and ran upwards of six miles an hour...“We came to a weir, such as I have already described, where the natives landed us, and (then) shot over it without taking a drop of water. They then received us on board again, and we continued our voyage...We proceeded at a very great rate for about two hours and a half, when we were informed that we must land, as the village was only at a short distance.” 

     MacKenzie will refer to this as the Great Village. 

     “I had imagined that the Canadians who accompanied me were the most expert cable-men in the world, but they are inferior to these people, as they themselves acknowledged, in conducting these vessels.”

     The canoes they traveled in were likely similar to those shown in Picture 1.      

Picture 1. Nuxalk Spoon Canoe, ca 1910. 

      “I now presented the young chief with a blanket, in return for the robe which he had favoured me, and several other articles, that appeared to be very gratifying to him. I also presented some to his father, and amongst them was a pair of scissors, whose use I explained to him, for clipping his beard, which was of great length; and to that purpose he immediately applied them.”

Picture 2. 18th Century Scissors. 

     “The communication, however, between us was awkward and inconvenient, for it was carried on entirely by signs, as there was not a person with me who was qualified for the office of interpreter.”

     Of everything they have seen so far, today’s journal entry is one of his busiest, and maybe the most detailed and descriptive. Their social interactions, the food, and his colourful descriptions of their village and incredible structures are highlights of the entire written work. I’d like to suggest that interested readers follow the entire story from here onwards. Today starts Chapter 9 of the 1801 published work, and MacKenzie will reach his ultimate goal in just a few more days. 

VOYAGES from MONTREAL

THROUGH THE CONTINENT of NORTH AMERICA

TO THE

FROZEN and PACIFIC OCEANS

IN 1789 and 1793

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE RISE

AND STATE OF THE FUR TRADE

By  ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, ESQ

 You can download the entire work, for free, here :

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35658/35658-h/35658-h.htm