82 Str ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

life in the Tonguin massacre in I8II on the
Pacific coast. Mackenzie had found it impos-
sible to secure satisfactory Indian companions.
Once his arrangements were upset by the
murder of a rival by a jealous husband; at
last three volunteers were secured, but the
only one who knew anything of the country
to the west ran away two days before Macken-
zie started. Of the two he took, one was
notoriously lazy (his nick-name was the Crab)
while both “know no more of the country
than I do myself.”

A long letter to his cousin, written on the
eve of his departure, shows an anxiety of mind
which is banished from the pages of his pub-
lished journal. He records that he has been
“59 vexed and disturbed of late that I cannot
sit down to anything steadily’’; he is worried
about his interests in the Company, in his
absence from the meeting that year at Grand
Portage; and he announces his resolution to
leave the North-West in 1794. “Should I be
successful,” he writes, “I shall return with
great advantage; if not, I cannot be worse off
than I am at present.” He had been busy