146 Str ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

both extremes, as well as along the coasts and
islands, the entire command of the fur-trade
of North America might be obtained from
latitude 48 North to the pole, except that
portion of it which the Russians have in the
Pacific. To this may be added the fishing
in both seas and the markets of the four quar-
ters of the globe. . . . Then would this coun-
try begin to be remunerated for the expenses
it has sustained in discovering and surveying
the coast of the Pacific Ocean, which is at
present left to American adventurers who,
without regularity or capital, or the desire of
conciliating future confidence, look altogether
to the interest of the moment.

The port of Vancouver and the province of
British Columbia are an answer to that
prophecy.

Mackenzie presented a more detailed
scheme to Lord Hobart, the Colonial Secre-
tary, in January, 1802. He says in this that
some of the oldest members of the North
West Company “are likely to prefer con-
tinuing on the beaten track,” but that he will
undertake to get the men in Canada and the
money in London for the new company if the