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in an age much interested in geographical dis-
covery, the presence in London of a man who
had just made a great addition to knowledge
passed unnoticed. His time was not wasted;
though in 1789 he was well equipped for an
amateur, he lacked the professional finish
which he now acquired. He left England in
April, 1792, was at Grand Portage in July,
and had joined Roderick McKenzie at Chipe-
wyan before the end of September. At Grand
Portage he apparently revealed to his partners
his plans for a new journey, for McDonald of
Garth, at that time a young clerk in the Com-
pany’s service, tells in his autobiography that
Mackenzie then offered to take him to the
Pacific, an offer which he refused.

Some time before, Mackenzie had decided
the direction of his second attempt. He had
discovered in 1789 that the Rocky Mountains
were a continuous chain to the Arctic Ocean,
and he could not hope, therefore, to find any-
where an easy passage downstream to the
Pacific until he had crossed the Rockies. His
problem now was to get to the Rockies, to find
a way through them along which it was pos-

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