PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA:
SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
“A YANKEE IN CANADA”: I got home this Thursday evening, having spent just one week in Canada and travelled eleven hundred miles. The whole expense of this journey, including two guidebooks and a map, which cost one dollar twelve and a half cents, was twelve dollars seventy five cents. I do not suppose that I have seen all British America; that could not be done by a cheap excursion, unless it were a cheap excursion to the Icy Sea, as seen by Hearne or McKenzie, and then, no doubt, some interesting features would be omitted. I wished to go a little way behind that word Canadense, of which naturalists make such frequent use; and I should like still right well to make a longer excursion on foot through the wilder parts of Canada, which perhaps might be called Iter Canadense.
SAMUEL HEARNE ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY
People Mentioned in A Yankee in Canada “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1764
Sir Alexander Mackenzie the Arctic explorer was born at Stornoway on the isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides Islands of Scotland, not, of course, as a “Sir” or as an Arctic explorer, but instead as a wee bundle assigned the designator “Alasdair MacCoinnich.”
NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE
People Mentioned in A Yankee in Canada “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1774
Samuel Adams visited New-York, and got approximately the same impression of the place that Henry Thoreau would get about half a century later:
I have never been in such a busy and bustling city. I have never met such rude people.
Robert Fergusson died in Edinburgh.
After graduating from the Royal High School George Heriot remained in Edinburgh, to study art under the encouragement of Sir James Grant.
The family of origin of Alexander Mackenzie (Alasdair MacCoinnich) emigrated from Scotland to New-York.
NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT
People Mentioned in A Yankee in Canada “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1776
George Washington began strengthening New-York’s fortifications early in the summer, fortifying Manhattan, Governor’s Island, Red Hook, and Brooklyn Heights, as well as areas of New Jersey.
During the American Revolution, the family of origin of Alexander Mackenzie (Alasdair MacCoinnich) emigrated from New-York to Montréal.
LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.
People Mentioned in A Yankee in Canada “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1779
The Iroquois nations had also decided to side with the British against the American revolutionaries. At this point the white revolutionaries invaded their home villages in upstate New York, driving many of their red enemies to take permanent refuge in southern Ontario. The Ongwi Honwi, superior people, of the Five Nations had at this point declined to fewer than 8,000 individuals. Following the Revolutionary War, much of their homeland would need to be surrendered in a series of treaties with New York land speculators.
Alexander Mackenzie went to work in the fur trade for the Finley and Gregory Company, and then for the North West Company.
In Nova Scotia, the Indians of the St. John River region assembled in large numbers and threatened to destroy the English. CANADA
THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
People Mentioned in A Yankee in Canada “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1788
Captain Gother Mann carried out the 1st British hydrographic surveys of importance on the Great Lakes, charting stretches of the Georgian Bay shoreline. CARTOGRAPHY
The North West Company of fur traders dispatched Alexander Mackenzie to Lake Athabasca to replace Peter Pond. There he founded Fort Chipewyan.
In Nova Scotia, the 1st vote of the House of Assembly in aid of King’s College, Windsor, was in the amount of £400. The House of Assembly addressed the governor against the judges of the Supreme Court, which the council voted to be altogether groundless.
THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
People Mentioned in A Yankee in Canada “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1789
June 3, Tuesday: Alexander Mackenzie departed from Fort Chipewyan (Alberta) in an attempt to discover a water route to the Pacific Ocean. THE FROZEN NORTH CANADA
Captain Charles DeWolf (3) remarried with Elizabeth Rogerson (there would be children of this union; he eventually would remarry with a 3d wife, Abigail Greene).
June 9, Tuesday: Alexander Mackenzie and his party reached the Great Slave Lake, about 300 kilometers north of his starting point, Fort Chipewyan. THE FROZEN NORTH CANADA
CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT
June 30, Tuesday: Two members of the Gardes françaises went to the National Assembly to denounce their commander. They were arrested and sent to Abbaye prison. A crowd of 400 thereupon effected their release.
Alexander Mackenzie and his party entered a river on the west end of the Great Slave Lake, which now bears his name. THE FROZEN NORTH CANADA
July 10, Friday: Peter Pond had learned from the local Dene people that the rivers in this region flowed to the northwest. Alexander Mackenzie set out by canoe to find the mouth of the river known as the Dehcho, in hope of finding a Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean (the river led instead to the Arctic Ocean). THE FROZEN NORTH CANADA
People Mentioned in A Yankee in Canada “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
July 14, Tuesday: Thomas Jefferson was in Paris during the capture by some 20,000 French revolutionaries of the Bastille Prison: “The decapitation of de Launay worked powerfully thro’ the night on the whole aristocratical party [so that they realized] the absolute necessity that the king should give up everything to the States [General].” It may well be that Jefferson utilized in his conversations with the French revolutionaries some version of his earlier “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants” remark.
FRENCH REVOLUTION, I FRENCH REVOLUTION, II Some 80,000 Parisians converged on the Invalides. After some negotiation they forced their way in and liberated the 30,000 muskets therein, along with several cannon. At 1:30PM, without authorization, a citizen cut the drawbridge chains on the Bastille Prison and the 900 citizens demanding its capitulation (and stores of powder) scurried across into the guns of the soldiers within. By 3:30PM, the battle turned into a siege, the citizens reinforced by gardes-françaises companies and cannon from the Invalides. At 5:00PM, the Bastille Prison capitulated as the citizens rushed in. They liberated 7 prisoners (4 forgers, an accomplice to murder, a nobleman who had committed incest, and an Irishman who had gone insane) and 14,000 kilograms of powder. In the battle 98 citizens had been killed and but one soldier. Then, however, three of the defenders, including the commander Bernard René Jordan, Marquis de Launay, were executed by the mob. The head of the Marquis was carried around on a pike. In the evening, King Louis XVI informed the National Assembly that he would withdraw troops from the center of Paris.
The score of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro arrived in Eisenstadt for the perusal of the local kapellmeister, Joseph Haydn.
The expedition led by Alexander Mackenzie reached the Arctic Ocean, having traversed the river which now bears his name. In 15 days they had traveled to a point about 1,600 kilometers northwest of their starting point at Fort Chipewyan. THE FROZEN NORTH CANADA
July 21, Tuesday: Alexander Mackenzie and his party begin their return journey from the Arctic Ocean. THE FROZEN NORTH CANADA HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
September 11, Friday: Alexander Hamilton was appointed as the 1st United States Secretary of the Treasury.
Alexander Mackenzie and his party returned to Fort Chipewyan after a journey of 102 days. They have traversed, to the Arctic Ocean and back, a distance of more than 3,200 kilometers. THE FROZEN NORTH CANADA
DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.
People Mentioned in A Yankee in Canada “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1791
Joseph Bouchette joined the Royal Navy’s Provincial Marine on the Great Lakes.
Alexander Mackenzie returned to Great Britain to study new advances in the measurement of longitude. CANADA HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1792
October 10, Wednesday: Alexander Mackenzie journeyed up the Peace River from Fort Chipewyan on a mission of exploration to find a route to the Pacific Ocean. CANADA
December 23, Sunday: Alexander Mackenzie moved into winter lodgings at his newly constructed forward position called Fort Fork (Peace River Landing, Alberta). CANADA HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1793
May 9, Thursday: Accompanied by native guides, French voyageurs and a dog whose only recorded name is “Our Dog,” Alexander Mackenzie and his party departed from their winter quarters at Fort Fork (Peace River Landing, Alberta) following the route of the Peace River. The party crossed the continental divide and found the upper reaches of the Fraser River but was warned by natives of the region that the Fraser Canyon to the south was unnavigable and populated by belligerent tribes. He was instead directed to follow an established trading route by ascending the West Road River, crossing over the Coast Mountains and descending the Bella Coola River to the sea. CANADA
May 31, Friday: A Sans-coulotte insurrection committee organized by Jean Varlet took over the Paris Commune.
Alexander Mackenzie reached the point at which the Parsnip River and the Finlay River join to create the Peace River. He elected to follow the Parsnip River toward the south. CANADA
June 12, Wednesday: Alexander Mackenzie and his party reached as far as they could up the Parsnip River and began to trek overland to a larger river of which they had received information from natives to the region. CANADA
June 18, Tuesday: Alexander Mackenzie and his party finally reached navigable water and traveled the MacGregor River to the Fraser River. CANADA
June 22, Saturday: Governor John Hancock of Massachusetts signed incorporation papers for a group intending to create the Middlesex Canal to connect the Medford River with the Merrimack.
After traveling four days on the Fraser River, Alexander Mackenzie and his party reached the site of present- day Alexandria, British Columbia (a city, indeed, which has been named after him). The natives there advised the party not to travel farther on its present course, but rather to return north and follow the valley of a tributary to the west (the West Road River). The party heeded their advice. CANADA
July 4, Thursday: Alexander Mackenzie and his party stored their canoes and excess supplies at the confluence of the Fraser River and West Road River and proceeded overland to the west. CANADA HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
July 17, Wednesday: Alexander Mackenzie reached the Bella Coola River at Friendly Village. CANADA
In France, this was the 28th of Messidor in the Year One. The National Convention decided to eliminate all feudal dues without compensation. Charlotte Corday d’Armont became a victim of the “machine,” because of her having stabbed to death Jean-Paul Marat in his bathtub. An assistant lifted her served head and slapped its cheek, which, it is reported, blushed — for this impropriety, François le Gros would need to serve three months in prison. HEADCHOPPING Famous Last Words:
“What school is more profitably instructive than the death-bed of the righteous, impressing the understanding with a convincing evidence, that they have not followed cunningly devised fables, but solid substantial truth.” — A COLLECTION OF MEMORIALS CONCERNING DIVERS DECEASED MINISTERS, Philadelphia, 1787 “The death bed scenes & observations even of the best & wisest afford but a sorry picture of our humanity. Some men endeavor to live a constrained life — to subject their whole lives to their will as he who said he might give a sign if he were conscious after his head was cut off — but he gave no sign Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows.” —Thoreau’s JOURNAL, March 12, 1853
1681 Headman Ockanickon of the Mantas are the “Leaping Frogs” “Be plain and fair to all, both Indian the Mantas group of the Lenape tribe and Christian, as I have been.”
1692 Massachusetts Bay being pressed to death for refusing to “Add more weight that my misery colonist Giles Corey cooperate in his trial for witchcraft may be the sooner ended.”
1777 John Bartram during a spasm of pain “I want to die.”
1790 Benjamin Franklin unsolicited comment “A dying man can do nothing easy.”
1793 Louis Capet, being beheaded in the Place de la Con- “I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my King Louis XVI of corde charge; I Pardon those who have occasioned France my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1793 Jean-Paul Marat reviewing a list of names “They shall all be guillotined.”
1793 Citizen Marie Antoinette stepping on the foot of her executioner “Pardonnez-moi, monsieur.” ... other famous last words ...
This would-be nun’s headless corpse was then carried to a nearby hospital in order for the authorities to be able to determine in relative privacy whether or not this person had been “virgina intacta.” (If Corday had not been a virgin, of course, then her political act would have been further invalidated. Although the sketch made of her private parts by a medical student has since disappeared, we know that the consensus of this medical report indeed was that this young woman on her way to becoming a nun had been still virginal.) THE MARKET FOR HUMAN BODY PARTS
WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF
July 19, Friday: After traveling for two days on the Bella Coola River (British Columbia), Alexander Mackenzie came upon native houses. “From these houses I could perceive the termination of the river, and its discharge into a narrow arm of the sea.” CANADA
July 20, Saturday: Elihu Burritt got married with Elizabeth Hinsdale in New Britain, Connecticut. Elijah Hinsdale Burritt would be this couple’s first child. Elihu Burritt (who would become known as “The Learned Blacksmith” because he had completed an apprenticeship as a blacksmith during his youth, and would in 1848 become the vice-president of a Peace Congress) would be this couple’s youngest son (although not the last child).
Alexander Mackenzie reached the Pacific coast at Bella Coola, British Columbia, on North Bentinck Arm, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. Thus, he completed the first recorded transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico. He had unknowingly missed meeting George Vancouver at Bella Coola by 48 days. He had wanted to continue westward out of a desire to encounter the open ocean but was turned back by the hostility of the Heiltsuk nation. CANADA
People Mentioned in A Yankee in Canada “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
July 22, Monday: After crossing Canada, Alexander Mackenzie reached the Pacific Ocean via the Fraser River.
Mackenzie completed his journey overland from Canada, across the Great Divide, to the Pacific Ocean, arriving near what is now Bella Coola. At his westernmost point on Dean Channel, hemmed in by Heiltsuk HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
war canoes, he painted on a rock the record “Alex MacKenzie / from Canada / by land / 22d July 1793.”
(Mackenzie’s inscription had been done in vermilion mixed with bear grease. Later surveyors chiseled his words.)
It is simply not accurate, what is commonly listed in US history books, that Merriwether Lewis was “the first white man to cross the Continental Divide.” He simply appears to be the first white man to cross the Continental Divide within territory which is now the United States of America. He had crossed the Northern Andes mountain chain (later to be known as the Rocky Mountains) as of May 31st and he would be back home by August 24th. (And, what is this first-white-man stuff anyway? All these white folks were merely following established native American trails.)
Arctic Explorations
Date Explorer Nation Discovery
1501 Gaspar Corte Real Portuguese Newfoundland
1536 Jacques Cartier French St. Lawrence River, Gaspe Peninsula
1553 Richard Chancellor English White Sea
1556 Stephen Burrough English Kara Sea
1576 Martin Frobisher English Frobisher Bay HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
Arctic Explorations
Date Explorer Nation Discovery
1582 Humphrey Gilbert English Newfoundland
1587 John Davis English Davis Strait
1597 Willem Barents Dutch Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemyla
1611 Henry Hudson English Hudson Bay
1616 William Baffin English Ellesmere and Devon Islands
1632 Thomas James English James Bay
1741 Vitus Bering Russian Alaska
1772 Samuel Hearne English Coppermine River to the Arctic Ocean
1779 James Cook British Vancouver Island, Nootka Sound
1793 Alexander Mackenzie English Bella Coola River to the Pacific
1825 Edward Parry British Cornwallis, Bathurst, Melville Islands
1833 John Ross British North Magnetic Pole
1845 John Franklin British King William Island
1854 Robert McClure British Banks Island, Viscount Melville Sound
THE FROZEN NORTH
August 24, Saturday: Alexander Mackenzie and his party arrived back at their starting point, Fort Chipewyan. The total distance they had covered was more than 3,700 kilometers. “Here my voyages of discovery terminate.” CANADA HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1802
Alexander Mackenzie was knighted. The two volumes of Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s VOYAGES FROM MONTREAL, ON THE RIVER ST.LAURENCE, THROUGH THE CONTINENT OF NORTH AMERICA TO THE FROZEN AND PACIFIC OCEANS IN THE YEARS 1789 AND 1793. WITH A PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT STATE OF THE FUR TRADE OF THAT COUNTRY. WITH ORIGINAL NOTES BY BOUGAINVILLE, AND VOLNEY. ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS. (London: Printed for T. Cadell; Jun. and W. Davies; and W. Creech by R. Noble; Edinburgh, W. Creech).
VOYAGES FROM MONTREAL
“A YANKEE IN CANADA”: I got home this Thursday evening, having spent just one week in Canada and travelled eleven hundred miles. The whole expense of this journey, including two guidebooks and a map, which cost one dollar twelve and a half cents, was twelve dollars seventy five cents. I do not suppose that I have seen all British America; that could not be done by a cheap excursion, unless it were a cheap excursion to the Icy Sea, as seen by Hearne or McKenzie, and then, no doubt, some interesting features would be omitted. I wished to go a little way behind that word Canadense, of which naturalists make such frequent use; and I should like still right well to make a longer excursion on foot through the wilder parts of Canada, which perhaps might be called Iter Canadense.
SAMUEL HEARNE ALEXANDER MACKENZIE HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
Henry Thoreau would copy the following materials into his Indian Notebook #12:1
[English] Knisteneaux Algonquin Pole-cat Shicak Shi-kak Elk Moustouche Michai woi Woolverine Qui qua katch Quin quoagki Moose Mouswah Monse Dog Atim Ani-mouse Snake Kinibick Ki nai bick Comb Sicahoun Pin ack wan Net Athabe Assap Tree Mistick Miti-coum Wood Mistik Mitic Fire Scou tay Scou tay Moon Tibisca pesim Dibic Kijiss
1. The original notebooks are held by the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, as manuscripts #596 through #606. There are photocopies, made by Robert F. Sayre in the 1930s, in four boxes at the University of Iowa Libraries, accession number MsC 795. More recently, Bradley P. Dean, PhD and Paul Maher, Jr. have attempted to work over these materials. HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1804
No Appropriation Bill passed this year in Nova Scotia, in consequence of a disagreement between the House of Assembly and Council.
At this point the Rocky Mountains were not the Rocky Mountains (the mountain range that Alexander Mackenzie had famously traversed was the Northern Andes).
Alexander Mackenzie would serve in the Legislature of Lower Canada from this point until 1808. CANADA HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1812
Walter Scott’s MARMION; A TALE OF FLODDEN FIELD (Baltimore: Published by Joseph Cushing).
(Henry Thoreau would have a copy of this 1812 American edition in his personal library. The electronic copy we have from Google Books is, however, the 1813 version published in England.) SCOTT’S MARMION
Sir Alexander Mackenzie got married, returned to Scotland, and retired to Avoch on the Black Isle of the Moray Firth. HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1820
March 12, Sunday: Alexander Mackenzie died at the age of 56 of what was then known as Bright’s disease, a morbid kidney condition. The body would be placed in the old Avoch parish churchyard, on the Black Isle of the Moray Firth in Scotland.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 12 of 3 M / In our morning Meeting Our frd D Buffum was very lively in a short testimony — In the Afternoon Silent & to me a very poor meeting tho’ favord with some ability to wrestle against obtrusions - This day about One OClock departed this Life Eliphal Jernagan an old friend & acquaintance in my Mothers family — in the early part of her time she was addressed by my Mothers brother Samuel Wanton, who went to Sea & on the passage home was taken sick & died & was brought home a corpse & interd in the Clifton burying ground & near his remians it is concluded to inter Eliphal About two years ago She had a cancer extracted from her breast & has remained in a very feeble state ever since tho’ She got out once & attended Meeting RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1825
Dr. Tiarks, a British astronomer, determined that the border marker selected by Thompson at Northwest Angle Inlet was the point referred to in the Treaty of Ghent. This decision was accepted by the Americans. From this year into 1827 John Franklin and Dr. John Richardson would be leading an expedition overland from the mouth of the Mackenzie River (now Northwest Canada) to Point Beechley (now Alaska), mapping the mainland coast from the mouth of the Mackenzie River west to Prudhoe Bay (Franklin) and East to the Coppermine River (Richardson). CARTOGRAPHY Arctic Explorations
Date Explorer Nation Discovery
1501 Gaspar Corte Real Portuguese Newfoundland
1536 Jacques Cartier French St. Lawrence River, Gaspe Peninsula
1553 Richard Chancellor English White Sea
1556 Stephen Burrough English Kara Sea
1576 Martin Frobisher English Frobisher Bay
1582 Humphrey Gilbert English Newfoundland
1587 John Davis English Davis Strait
1597 Willem Barents Dutch Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemyla
1611 Henry Hudson English Hudson Bay
1616 William Baffin English Ellesmere and Devon Islands
1632 Thomas James English James Bay
1741 Vitus Bering Russian Alaska
1772 Samuel Hearne English Coppermine River to the Arctic Ocean
1779 James Cook British Vancouver Island, Nootka Sound
1793 Alexander Mackenzie English Bella Coola River to the Pacific
1825 Edward Parry British Cornwallis, Bathurst, Melville Islands
1833 John Ross British North Magnetic Pole
1845 John Franklin British King William Island
1854 Robert McClure British Banks Island, Viscount Melville Sound
THE FROZEN NORTH Franklin would provide an account of soldiers playing ice hockey in the Northwest Territories. HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1827
From this year until 1865, Professor William Jackson Hooker’s Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (38 volumes in all).
The expedition of John Franklin returned from its adventure to the mouth of the Mackenzie River (now Northwest Canada) to Point Beechley (now Alaska). THE FROZEN NORTH
Thomas Drummond, a nurseryman of Forfarshire who had been part of this expedition, would find a new job as the curator of the Belfast Botanic Garden. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1859
February 28, Monday: George William Curtis wrote from the north shore of Staten Island to Charles Wesley Slack agreeing to read on December 11th a lecture that he had prepared for Philadelphia and elsewhere on “The Recent Aspect of the Slavery Question.” In a postscript he made reference to the Reverend Theodore Parker.
Sallie Holley wrote to Mrs. Porter about having attended Henry Thoreau’s Worcester lectures in H.G.O. Blake’s parlor on “AUTUMNAL TINTS”: The last two evenings we had in Worcester, we were at two parlour lectures given by Mr. Henry D. Thoreau, the author of that odd book, Walden, or Life in the Woods. The first lecture was upon “Autumnal Tints,” and was a beautiful and, I doubt not, a faithful report of the colours of leaves in October. Some of you may have read his “Chesuncook,” in The Atlantic Monthly; if so you can fancy how quaint and observing, and humorous withal, he is as traveller — or excursionist-companion in wild solitudes. Several gentlemen, friends of his, tell us much of their tour with him to the White Mountains last summer, of his grand talk with their guide in “Tuckerman’s Ravine,” where they had their camp. He paid us the compliment of a nice long morning call after we heard him read his “Autumnal Tints,” and remembered our being once at his mother’s to tea, and Miss Putnam’s looking over his herbarium with his sister. SOPHIA E. THOREAU
“AUTUMNAL TINTS”: Europeans coming to America are surprised by the brilliancy of our autumnal foliage. There is no account of such a phenomenon in English poetry, because the trees acquire but few bright colors there. The most that Thomson says on this subject in his “Autumn” is contained in the lines — “But see the fading many-colored woods, Shade deepening over shade, the country round Imbrown; a crowded umbrage, dusk and dun, Of every hue, from wan declining green To sooty dark.”
And the line in which he speaks “Of Autumn beaming o’er the yellow woods.”
The autumnal change of our woods has not made a deep impression on our own literature yet. October has hardly tinged our poetry.
JAMES THOMSON HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
Thoreau checked out, from Harvard Library, the two volumes of Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s VOYAGES FROM MONTREAL, ON THE RIVER ST. LAURENCE, THROUGH THE CONTINENT OF NORTH AMERICA TO THE FROZEN AND PACIFIC OCEANS IN THE YEARS 1789 AND 1793. WITH A PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT STATE OF THE FUR TRADE OF THAT COUNTRY. WITH ORIGINAL NOTES BY BOUGAINVILLE, AND VOLNEY. ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS. (London: Printed for T. Cadell; Jun. and W. Davies; and W. Creech by R. Noble; Edinburgh, W. Creech, 1802).
VOYAGES FROM MONTREAL
“A YANKEE IN CANADA”: I got home this Thursday evening, having spent just one week in Canada and travelled eleven hundred miles. The whole expense of this journey, including two guidebooks and a map, which cost one dollar twelve and a half cents, was twelve dollars seventy five cents. I do not suppose that I have seen all British America; that could not be done by a cheap excursion, unless it were a cheap excursion to the Icy Sea, as seen by Hearne or McKenzie, and then, no doubt, some interesting features would be omitted. I wished to go a little way behind that word Canadense, of which naturalists make such frequent use; and I should like still right well to make a longer excursion on foot through the wilder parts of Canada, which perhaps might be called Iter Canadense.
SAMUEL HEARNE ALEXANDER MACKENZIE HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
Thoreau also checked out John Halkett, Esq.’s HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA: WITH REMARKS ON THE ATTEMPTS MADE TO CONVERT AND CIVILIZE THEM (London: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co. Edinburgh; and Hurst, Robinson, and Co. 90, Cheapside, and 8, Pall Mall, 1825).2
RESPECTING THE INDIANS
Thoreau also checked out Lionel Wafer (1640-1705)’s A NEW VOYAGE AND DESCRIPTION OF THE ISTHMUS OF AMERICA, GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR’S ABODE THERE, THE FORM AND MAKE OF THE COUNTRY, THE COASTS, HILLS, RIVERS, &C. WOODS, SOIL, WEATHER, &C. TREES, FRUIT, BEASTS, BIRDS, FISH, &C. (London: Printed for J. Knapton, 1699).
http://web.princeton.edu/sites/english/eng321/WAFER.HTM
“There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away” — Emily Dickinson 2. He would put his notes on this reading into his Indian Notebook #12. He would also, in about 1861, read a review of this book by Lewis Cass and put his notes on this reading of this review into that same Indian Notebook. HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
February 28. To Cambridge and Boston. Saw a mackerel in the market. The upper half of its sides is mottled blue and white like the mackerel sky, as stated January 19th, 1858. HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
1997
Barry Gough’s FIRST ACROSS THE CONTINENT: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE (The Oklahoma Western Biographies Series. Norman and London: U of Oklahoma P).
“A YANKEE IN CANADA”: I got home this Thursday evening, having spent just one week in Canada and travelled eleven hundred miles. The whole expense of this journey, including two guidebooks and a map, which cost one dollar twelve and a half cents, was twelve dollars seventy five cents. I do not suppose that I have seen all British America; that could not be done by a cheap excursion, unless it were a cheap excursion to the Icy Sea, as seen by Hearne or McKenzie, and then, no doubt, some interesting features would be omitted. I wished to go a little way behind that word Canadense, of which naturalists make such frequent use; and I should like still right well to make a longer excursion on foot through the wilder parts of Canada, which perhaps might be called Iter Canadense.
SAMUEL HEARNE ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
Reviewed for H-Canada by Jamie Morton
Barry Gough’s biography of Alexander Mackenzie, FIRST ACROSS THE CONTINENT, is described by the author as “an interpretive reappraisal of Mackenzie rather than a comprehensive or full biography” (p. 217). A broad range of subjects has been addressed in the Oklahoma Western Biographies, the series in 3 which FIRST ACROSS THE CONTINENT has been published. The series editor, in his “Preface,” states the two goals of the series are: “to provide readable life stories of significant westerners and to show how their lives illuminate a notable topic, an influential movement, or a series of important events in the history and culture of the North American West” (p. xi). Toward these goals, Professor Gough has produced a carefully researched and well-written summary biography of Mackenzie. Understandably, it emphasizes the latter’s defining expeditions to the mouth of the Mackenzie River and to the Pacific. Professor Gough has made a concerted effort to provide a socioeconomic context for Mackenzie’s business and exploratory efforts. He
3. As an example, the preceding thirteen volumes have included biographies of George Armstrong Custer, Narcissa Whitman, Red Cloud, John Ford and Cesar Chavez. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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emphasized the impact that Mackenzie had on the way the geography of western North America was conceptualized, and in turn how it was developed in response to mercantile strategies. As such, the book seems to address precisely and effectively the mandate of the series, and to provide an effective synthesis and interpretation of the life and work of Mackenzie. One of the interesting things about this book is the impression it gives of a fairly explicit attempt to locate the protagonist in the pantheon of heroes of the North American “frontier.” This in turn seems to correspond to a recent and observable change in approaches to “western” and “frontier” history in North America. This shift is seen as a reaction against the current emphasis on social history and structural history, which has produced a body of work identified as “the new Western history.” The recent move away from this approach is manifested in what may be termed neo-romantic studies of western history. Typically, these involve the repackaging and broad dissemination of the stories of well-known (to professional historians) characters in the non- Native exploration and resettlement (in the sense used by the historical geographer Cole Harris) of western North America.4 It has been suggested, in the H-Canada discussion list and elsewhere, that there is a groundswell of public interest in such BIG history, combined with a hunger for historical information, historical anecdotes, and perhaps more significantly, historical heroes. The subtext of this suggestion, which may or may not be wishful thinking on the part of historians, is that the (literate) public is looking for a historically-based symbolic system, presumably to provide a mythological location for concepts of cultural or national identity. This perceived market demand is supported by an impetus among some historians to tackle BIG history, spurred on by the sense that the broad organizing themes in the development of the country have been ignored in favor of “micro-historical studies.”5 This convergence of market demand and academic inclination means that a broader approach, rather than dense analysis, has become evident in the reexamination of some themes such as the non-Native exploration of North America. Apparently it has become acceptable once more to write in terms of firsts, and perhaps even more controversially, the impact of “heroes.”6 Events are viewed, and valued, in terms of their larger symbolic value to those who are writing about them, and those, it is anticipated, who will read 4. Harris refines the definition of early non-Native settlement [usually identified as “pioneer” or “frontier” settlement] of British Columbia as “resettlement,” capturing explicitly the concept of preexisting social systems and land use patterns of indigenous populations; Cole Harris, THE RESETTLEMENT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA: ESSAYS ON COLONIALISM AND GEOGRAPHICAL CHANGE, Vancouver, UBC Press, 1997. 5. For example, Michael Bliss suggests that the move towards “specialized” history was paralleled by a loss of the sense of national community. He argues that the work of historians should help in the “quest for public self-understanding”; Michael Bliss, “Privatizing the Mind: The Sundering of Canada,” Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol.26, no.4 (Winter 1991-92), 5-17. 6. Allan Greer attributes a temporal shift in research away from the early post-contact era in favor of later periods to a philosophical inclination away from “origins” and “firsts” in structuralist approaches; Allan Greer, “Canadian History: Ancient and Modern,” Canadian Historical Review, Vol.77, no.4 (December 1996), 575-590. Does this imply the opposite; that in a neo-romantic approach, the description and analysis of mythic origins and firsts is most appropriately located within the context of early post-contact, or “frontier,” history? Are myths best, or most safely, located in the mists of time? HDT WHAT? INDEX
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about them. Social history and historiographical trends of the recent past have had an impact on the realization of these neo-romantic studies. Typically they differ from the Whig history and biography of the early twentieth century in that there is an acknowledgment of the imperfections of the heroic protagonists, and of inputs or assistance from “others,” including people of different race or gender. The emphasis remains on the mythic character of events and actors, but the lessons of social history tend to be incorporated, or at least recognized. This approach coincidentally seems to correspond better with the more cynical attitudes of the modern audience, which is less inclined to believe in the infallibility of heroes. However, there seems to be if anything greater appreciation of a hero who exhibits human frailties, but accomplishes mythic tasks in spite of them. On a continental scale, it is Stephen Ambrose’s book about the Lewis and Clark expedition, UNDAUNTED COURAGE, which serves as a prototype of this neo-romantic movement.7 Not only did the book become a best seller, but it was developed into a documentary for PBS by the noted film maker Ken Burns. Clearly, it has struck a responsive chord in the marketplace for historical publications, and has in turn entrenched in a modern audience the mythic significance of the expedition and its members. There is a demonstrated demand for BIG stories of historical adventure, and the BIG characters that were the actors in them. FIRST ACROSS THE CONTINENT seems to fit into this trend, as a well- constructed example of a neo- romantic biography of a great man performing great deeds. The title itself makes a bold statement, without any of the qualifiers of gender, class, or most important, race, that would be essential in “the new Western history.” Likewise, the appellation given to Mackenzie as “a northern Sinbad,” (p. 5) provides an explicit linkage to an existing cultural symbol representing adventure and heroism. The popularization of a well-known historical narrative for a broader audience is also evident in the eminently readable style of the book, and in the two-part “teaser” currently being 8 published in the journal MONTANA. Writing in a post-modern era, Professor Gough acknowledges the factors of race, gender and class. However, throughout the book there is a strong subtext linking Alexander Mackenzie’s personal and business life, together with his famous travels, to the established tropes of the western or frontier hero. For instance, his origins are in an aristocratic, but economically diminished Scottish family (pages 13-19). This, combined with his later experiences in North America, equips him to act not only in the “wilderness,” but as the intermediary who can translate the lessons of the wilderness for the consumption of “civilized” society. The earlier trader/explorer Peter Pond is portrayed as something of a Leather stocking to Mackenzie (pages 58-75). Pond has the local knowledge, which Mackenzie 7. Stephen E. Ambrose, UNDAUNTED COURAGE: MERIWETHER LEWIS, THOMAS JEFFERSON, AND THE OPENING OF THE AMERICAN WEST, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1996 8. Starting in Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Vol.47, No.3 (Autumn 1997), 2- 15 HDT WHAT? INDEX
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appropriated and used, but due to failings of “character” (Gough describes Pond as “that crabbed genius” [p. 207]). is unable to bridge the gap between “wilderness” and “civilization.” Professor Gough uses Mackenzie’s lack of acknowledgment of Pond’s contribution as an example of the former’s overpowering ego, one of the hero’s imperfections. Meanwhile Mackenzie is able to survive and be transformed by the trials of the wilderness, but is likewise able to reconceptualize his experience for the consumption of the civilized world. It is the capture of special knowledge under arduous circumstances, and its dissemination to the originating culture, that is diagnostic of the mythic hero. Also typical of the mythic hero, Mackenzie is portrayed as something of a loner or renegade, working toward a higher goal, or a dream, in spite of the strictures of the larger system in which he operated. For example, in the conclusion of the text, it is noted that Mackenzie’s achievements “rested on European capital and markets, on native trading and advice, and on French Canadian grit and brawn. But he alone drove on the expeditions to their goals” (p. 211). In other words, it took the vision and managerial expertise of one special person to muster and focus the diverse inputs required to explore the routes to the Arctic and the Pacific Oceans. Additionally, the conclusion explicitly invokes the Horatio Alger myth; that any person with sufficient ability and a strong enough work ethic can improve their economic standing and so “rise in the world” as a result of their own efforts (p. 211). A preview of the conceptual structure of this book is found in Professor Gough’s 1992 conference paper, “The Politics of Trade, Exploration and Territory: Alexander Mackenzie’s Scheme for North Pacific Dominion.”9 Some of the motivation underlying the ideation of Mackenzie as a true hero is revealed in this paper. It was produced in part as a response to the 1989 Michael Bliss article in The Beaver, “Conducted Tour,” which argued that Mackenzie was little more than a tourist, escorted to the Arctic and Pacific Oceans by Native guides fully familiar with the routes.10 Although Professor Gough acknowledged that the trips would have been impossible without Native guides, he believed that emphasizing this aspect does not address adequately the central importance of Mackenzie’s expeditions to the subsequent development of North America. Gough’s rebuttal is located in the enormous economic and cultural impacts which were brought about by Mackenzie’s trips. Although the routes may have been familiar to indigenous people, without Mackenzie making the knowledge available to the EuroAmerican capitalist system, these impacts would not have been realized. The trips themselves may have diminished intrinsic value as adventures, but increased value in how the information gained was used to develop strategies for economic and imperial growth, synonymous with the reconceptualizing, reshaping, and ultimately resettling of 9. Unedited copy published in “Papers on the Vancouver Conference on Exploration and Discovery, April 24-26, 1992,” Part II, Burnaby, BC, Simon Fraser University, 1992 10. Michael Bliss, “Conducted Tour,” The Beaver, Vol. 69, No.2 (April-May 1989), 16-24 HDT WHAT? INDEX
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North America. As expressed in this book, what is central in defining the significance of Mackenzie’s adventures is not the geographic knowledge that permitted the trips, or even the trips themselves, but the packaging and transmission of the newly- acquired geographic knowledge to the movers and shakers of the business and colonial power structures. There is also a sense in the book of a reaction to the great significance and mythic value currently accorded to the Lewis and Clark Expedition. There is an implied desire to redress the balance; to place that more celebrated adventure in its historical context as an outcome of Alexander Mackenzie’s travels, and more specifically, the dissemination of information concerning them. Not only were Lewis and Clark twelve years later, but were carrying out orders based on the geographic knowledge furnished by Mackenzie. Mackenzie, on the other hand, had the visionary attributes of the true hero, striking off into the “unknown” in search of his dream (pages 6, 184, 209-210). Following the logic of heroes, the self-directed hero should be accorded a higher position in the pantheon than the “journeyman hero,” who simply was carrying out political orders. Professor Gough has produced a well-researched and readable narrative summarizing Mackenzie’s life and work. He has done an effective job in locating Mackenzie, his expeditions, writings, commercial ventures and lobbying in the broader cultural, colonial and mercantile context of the times. The arguments supporting Mackenzie’s position as “one of the greatest travelers of all time” (p. 3) and a “giant” among the fur traders (p. 211) are effectively and eloquently presented. The list of sources consulted supports the narrative effectively, and provides a good entry into the literature of the North West fur trade of the late eighteenth century. Finally, the book seems to fulfill explicitly the mandate of the series in which it appears. The primary issue raised for me in the narrative is the remarkable correspondence between the portrayal of Mackenzie and the mythic paradigm of the frontier hero. Is this just coincidence, does it relate to the use of Mackenzie’s own literary record to supply much of the historical information, or is it an effort on the part of the author to redress what seems to be an under-rating of Mackenzie’s significance to the development of North America? It may be that all of these factors contributed, and there is no denying that, based on his impact, Mackenzie should be placed solidly in the top echelon of EuroAmerican explorers of North America. It is possible that mythic forms, such as that of the frontier hero, are inevitable if a neo-romantic approach is taken in writing history. The portrayal of the “sweep of history,” to provide broad organizing concepts and increase public appreciation of our past, leads naturally into the use of symbolic characters and mythic forms. These provide an effective mechanism for telling an appealing story, that will interest and hopefully educate the public. The danger of the neo-romantic approach lies in its potential for HDT WHAT? INDEX
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the oversimplification of complex patterns of historical actors and actions into mythic narratives of great people performing great deeds. In this book, Professor Gough has managed to include many of the structural factors that influenced the course of Alexander Mackenzie’s life, all the while maintaining a firm vision of Mackenzie as a mythic frontier hero.
“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY
People Mentioned in A Yankee in Canada “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
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This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX
MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
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MENTIONED IN A YANKEE IN CANADA: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE