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130 Str ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

with, and his lordly demeanour had earned him
the nicknames of “Whe Premier and) “Phe
Marquis”. Mackenzie’s appointment as agent
was regarded by the winterers as a guarantee
that their interests would be protected, for he
was one of themselves, trained in the same
stern school of the North-West. He was
bound to the Company, by the agreement of
1790, until the end of 1798.

He went from Grand Portage to Mon-
treal through the Great Lakes. We get a
glimpse of him at Niagara in September with
Simcoe, the first lieutenant-governor of
Upper Canada, presenting a sea-otter skin as
a proof that he had reached the Pacific, and
entertaining Mrs. Simcoe with travellers’
tales of the fish-eating dwellers on its shores.
To Simcoe he wrote a short report of his
explorations, and in conversation he revealed
a design which occupies a very important
place in his subsequent career. Simcoe con-
sidered it of enough interest to add to a long
report on western problems which he was pre-
paring for the British government. Macken-
zie, who “seems to be as intelligent as he is