24 Mackenzie’s Voyages

of the X.Y. Company and the North-Westers, and, after
the amalgamation, Alexander Mackenzie was sent to take
charge of the important department of Athabasca.

In 1788 Alexander wrote to his cousin Roderick divulging
his intention to undertake a voyage of discovery the next
year down the river that runs out of Slave Lake to the
Northern Ocean. In order to further this plan he begged
his cousin not to retire as he had intended, but to accompany
him to Athabasca to take charge of that district, and thus
enable the prospective explorer to carry out his project;
above all he was not to mention this matter to anyone, as
a knowledge of his proposed expedition might affect his
standing with the powerful interests at Montreal. Alexander
was so earnest in his appeal that Roderick felt moved to
accede to his request and accompanied him to the new district.

The new chief thought at first of abandoning the posts
farther north and withdrawing from the district, but, on
more mature reflection, decided not only to retain all of
them but to establish others. He therefore sent Boyer to
establish a post on Peace River, and Le Roux was directed
to go back to Slave Lake to the post already built there, and
another was begun at Lac a la Martre, fifteen days’ travel
from Great Slave Lake towards the north-west. Roderick
was commissioned to select a site for a new establishment on
Lake Athabasca, where, after a careful inspection, he decided
upon a location on a promontory, on the south side of the
lake, eight miles east of the mouth of the Athabasca River.
The fishing was good, a very important matter for these
northern posts which had to depend largely on fish for their
food supplies.

Roderick Mackenzie was entrusted with the task of
building the fort, and made such a good job of it, that the
astronomer Turner, David ‘Thompson, Simon Fraser, and