Chapitre 4 à

avril 1793

Le meurtre de l'Indien , nommé la. Perdrix - Blanche, avait dérangé les plans arrêtés avec le reste de sa tribu pour la chasse du printems. Peu après sa mort les Indiens s'assemblèrent à quelque distance du fort, et m'envoyèrent une députation, pour me demander du rum, afin qu'ils pussent boire et pleurer la mort de leur frère. Il serait extrêmement déshonorant pour un Indien, de pleurer tant qu'il conserve sa raison ; mais dès qu'il est ivre, il le peut sans honte. Cependant je refusai de leur donner du rum. avril. Alors ils dirent qu'ils iraient faire la guerre. Nous fîmes ce que nous pûmes moi et mes gens, pour les détourner de ce dessein, car l'humanité et notre propre intérêt nous y engageaient; et un second message m'ayant été apporté par les hommes les plus recommandables de la tribu, j'adhérai à leur demande sous la condition expresse qu'ils resteraient paisiblement chez eux.

pages 207-208

mai 1793

(1) Joseph Landry et Charles Doucette m'accompagnaient dans mon premier voyage. (Note de l'auteur).
(2) On voit qu'excepté le premier, tous ces noms sont français.

pages 208-211

Titre original

Voyages from Montreal on the river St. Laurence, through the continent of North America to the frozen and Pacific Oceans in the years 1789 and 1793
Mackenzie, Alexander (1755-1820. Cadell & Davies (London; Edinburgh). 1801

Disponible en format PDF.

juin 1789

Journal of a Voyage.
June, 1789. Wednesday, 3. "We embarked at nine in the morning at Fort Chipewyan, on the south side of the Lake of the Hills . . . . in a canoe made of birch-bark."

To make a successful voyage in the wilds of the far north the great requisite is a reliable crew and a good band of followers. Hearne had found this out. Mackenzie himself knew it well from his half-dozen years of western exploration and trade. He had secured a guide, the "English chief," who was a true successor of Matonnabee, Hearne's famous guide. The "English chief" had often made the journey from Lake Athabaska to Hudson Bay to trade with the English company, and had thus gained his name. With his two wives and two young Indians in one canoe, and his followers and slaves to act as interpreters and food providers in another, the chief accompanied the "Kitehe Okema "—Mackenzie.

Mackenzie led the way in his own canoe, accompanied by four French-Canadians, two of them having their wives, and a steady young German named John Steinbruck. His four Canadians deserve mention. They were Francois Barricau, Charles Ducette, Joseph Landry, and Pierre De Lorme.

Leroux had before, as we have seen, penetrated the northern route to Great Slave Lake, and now he was at Fort Chipewyan to assist the explorer in his great departure for the north. Leroux was taking merchandize with him to trade in Slave Lake, but the other canoes being overloaded, Mackenzie required him to take clothing and merchandize to serve the advance party when they should leave Slave Lake behind, and push forward into the great unknown.

All being ready the brigade started on its way on June 3rd, 1789, crossed Lake Athabaska, twenty miles wide, to a river that led out of the lake, and for seven miles further the party pushed on, interrupted by the hunters stopping to shoot a wild goose and a couple of ducks. Camp was soon made and the journey was well begun on the first day. The next day they followed the tortuous stream to every point of the compass, until, after a ten miles' spurt, the branch joined Peace River, the vast stream coming from the west.

Some confusion is caused by travellers stating that the Peace River empties into Lake Athabaska, and by others declaring that Lake Athabaska flows towards Peace River. Both are correct. During high water the channel followed by Mackenzie runs from the river into the lake, but at other times, as in this first voyage, the lake flows into the river.

The Peace River, which rises to the west of the Rocky Mountains and flows through them, is, at the point where Mackenzie reached it, a mighty stream, a mile broad. Indeed, from this point of junction the river changes its name, and flowing northwards to Great Slave Lake, is known as Slave River.

After reaching Slave River the party hurried forward, making twenty-four and a half miles, and then enjoyed the excitement of running the upper rapids. Camp was not struck until they had made thirty-six and a half miles more, thus accomplishing seventy-one miles as their day's work. The camp was at the junction of the Doi; amid Slave Rivers and just above the second rapids of the Slave River.

page 32-34

The crew was to consist of ten persons. Their names deserve to be mentioned. After the great explorer came his lieutenant—Alexander Mackay, of Reay—who relieved Mackenzie of much responsibility. He was an able man, and was chief among the notable traders who afterwards carried out the plans of John Jacob Astor on the Pacific coast. Mackay's career was afterwards arrested all too soon ; he was killed on the Tonquin—a story of the coast known to all. Two of Mackenzie's faithful French-Canadians—Joseph Landry and Charles Ducette, who had accompanied him on his former voyage were ready to follow him on the present occasion. Four others also stood willing to go. These were Baptiste Bisson, François Courtois, .Jacques Beauchamp, and François Beaulieu, the last of whom died as late as 1872, aged nearly one hundred years, probably the oldest man in the North-West at the time. Archbishop Tache gives an interesting account of Beaulieu's baptism at the age of seventy. Two Indians complete the list. One of these was so indolent that he bore the name of cancre—the crab.

One of the things that constantly causes our wonder as we read the records of North-West exploration, both by Nor'-Westers and their rivals from Hudson Bay, is the magnitude of the results achieved by men so poorly provided with even the necessaries of life and travel. Here were ten men about to undertake a terrific journey of more than three hundred leagues through a country partly unknown, and such of it as was known presenting enormous difficulties. Mountain torrents must be stemmed or circumvented, vast regions must be traversed where game was reported scarce, and Indians, famed for fierceness and deceit, must for the first time be taught fear or respect for the adventurous intruders upon their hitherto unmolested domain.

That man was of heroic mould who could originate such an expedition, and could inspire other men to face such dangers, where lofty purpose and over-mastering ambition could alone nerve him through the discouraging and even desperate periods of his journey. And yet how simple and natural the explorer's account of the beginning of so great and difficult an expedition: "My winter interpreter, with another person, whom I left here to take care of the fort, and supply the natives with ammunition during the summer, shed tears on the reflection of those dangers which we might encounter iii our expedition, while my own people offered up their prayers that we might return safely from it."

pages 66-68

http://www.archive.org/stream/scotsmanincanada02campuoft/scotsmanincanada02campuoft_djvu.txt

The story of Alexander Mackenzie's expedition has the advantage of being told by the explorer himself. It is not necessary for us to dwell upon the details of the difficulties, disappointments, and preparations of his great journey. Leaving Fort Chipewyan on June 3, 1789, he worked out his plans. For exploratory work in an absolutely wild

page 59

country the opinions of the natives are of the greatest value. Accordingly Mackenzie chose a crew made up of half-breeds and Indians and took as his guide the " English Chief." In his own canoe he was accompanied by four French Canadians the best of voyageurs. His Canadians were Francois Barrieau, Charles Ducette, Joseph Landry, and Pierre de Lorme. Leroux, being present with him at Fort Chipewyan, piloted the party northward through the district well known to him. The region was wild and dangerous ; within twelve miles in one section of the route there were the rapids called "D'Embarras," " Mountain," and " Pelican," followed, as the recital tells us, with fierce rapids, boiling cauldrons, and whirling eddies.

On June 25th, leaving Leroux at Great Slave Lake, the explorer started into the unknown upon his Northern voyage amid volleys from the small arms of the traders and servants who were left behind. This custom was long followed on the departure of the officers of the Company. We omit the details of their meetings with new Indians, passing dangerous rapids, and going through numerous interesting adventures through thirty or forty days of constant travel from Fort Chipewyan. The end of the Northern journey was made when he reached Whale Island in the mouth of the river, where the latitude was taken at 69 7 N. The tide from the ocean rose and fell on the shores of the island. They were a degree or two within the Arctic Circle and found themselves

page 60

http://telusplanet.net/public/dgarneau/metis29.htm

3 juin 1789

mai 1793

1793

1792-1793