20 Mackenzie’s Voyages

in life. The inner necessity that impels men to the fulfilment
of their destiny, the impulse to achieve, in fact all the subtle
workings of the soul, whose obvious fruits are deeds, these
things in their inception are too often hidden from curiosity.
Hence it is difficult to date the birth of the ideas which
finally led him to make those voyages which were to solve
certain vexed problems and prepare the way for the develop-
ment of a new empire.

He arrived in Montreal in 1779 and entered the counting-
house of Messrs. Gregory and MacLeod, well-known
merchants of that city. He was then sixteen. ‘The inquisitive
mind of which he speaks, with his commercial tendencies,
enabled him in the five years he spent with this firm to
attain a mastery of all the details that would be useful to
him. He became intimately acquainted with the kind of
articles required in the trade, their costs in England, their
transportation to Montreal, where they were repacked in
bales or “pieces”? of ninety pounds each, for convenience in
handling in the canoes and on the portages, their dispatch
to the west in canoes and bateaux, each canoe having a
value of £700 sterling by the time it reached its destination,
the whole method of financing, the number and nature of
the personnel, their wages and cost of maintenance, the prices
paid and received for furs—these interests were a part of
his daily life; all he lacked was canoe experience and direct
bargaining contact with the natives themselves. He had
before him the example of Curry, who was able to retire
after one successful trip into the Indian country.

As an example of the volume and nature of the trade the
following abstract will give a notion: “In the year 1785
there were issued 43 passes for 108 canoes, 146 bateaux,
1644 men, 42,780 gallons of rum, 7270 gallons of wine,
48,610 pounds of powder, 1425 fusils, 8394 cwt. of shot,