Lawrence, she would conquer also on the
Saskatchewan and on the Mississippi.
Conquer she did, and thus it happened that it was Britain's sons
who took up the later burdens of the discoverer. In the summer of
1789, just at the time when the great Revolution was beginning in
France, Alexander Mackenzie, a Scotch trader from Montreal,
starting from Lake Athabasca, north of the farthest point reached
by Hendry, was pressing still onward into an unknown region to
find a river which might lead to the sea. This river he found; we
know it now as the Mackenzie. For two weeks he and his Indians
and voyageurs paddled with the current down this mighty stream,
and on July 14, 1789, the day of the fall of the Bastille, he saw
whales sporting in Arctic waters.
The real goal which Mackenzie sought was that of La Verendrye, a
western and not a northern ocean. Three years later, after months
of preparation, he attempted the great feat of crossing the Rocky
Mountains to the sea. After nine months of rugged travel, across
mountain streams and gorges, in peril daily from hostile savages,
on July 22, 1793, he reached the shore of the Pacific Ocean, the
first white man to go by land over the width of the continent
from sea to sea.
Pages:
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171