DISCOVERY BY ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

habitable. He then set his men to build five more houses
for themselves, and thenceforth his life was that of a fur-
dealer, occasionally visited by the trappers, and subsisting
on the game of the country, which, happily, was quite
abundant. ;

On the Ist of January, 1793, he was, as usual, awakened
by volleys from his men’s muskets, and, in return for their
good wishes, he treated them “with plenty of spirits.” *
Five days afterwards he mentions the firing of the Indian
guns as a mark of sorrow at the death of a member of the
tribe, a circumstance which goes to prove that fire-arms
were already common in that part of the world. Intoxi-
cants do not seem to have been much scarcer, since he
adds in a foot-note, that when those Indians “are drink-
ing, they frequently present their guns to each other, when
any of the parties have not cther means of procuring rum.”

In April the supply of liquor was exhausted among the
natives, who sent an embassy to him to “demand rum
to drink.”? Having at first refused to comply with
their request, their threats forced him to yield to their
importunities.

At the opening of the spring he received a valued
reinforcement in the person of Alexander Mackay, who
was destined to meet with a violent death on the ship
Tonguin, which was captured by the Coast Indians.
Finally, on the 9th of May, 1793, Mackenzie left for his
perilous expedition in a birch-bark canoe 25 feet long,
434 feet beam, and 26 inches hold. Therein he found place
for 3,000 pounds of baggage and provisions, together with a
crew of nine French Canadians, whose names are worthy
to be transmitted to posterity. Besides Mackay and his

1. ‘*Journal of a Voyage Through the North-West Continent of America,”
London, 1801, p. 137.
2uLbtd... ps 150.
37