NOTE ON A MEMORABLE EPOCH IN CANADIAN

HISTORY.

BY SANDFORD FLEMING, LL.D., C.M.G., ETC.

(Read 11th February, 1893.)

On the 22nd of July, 1793, a traveller from Montreal reached the shores of what is now the western province of Canada. This traveller was the first civilized man who had traversed the continent between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in any latitude. In a few months a century will have elapsed since he first looked upon the waters of the Pacific.

On the 20th of July, 1871, seventy-eight years after the consummation of the first transcontinental journey, British Columbia, only a few years. emerged from the wilderness, was included in the Canadian Confederation. On that day Canada attained magnificent geographical proportions; the Dominion extended across the entire width of the northern continent. There are not many of our people who are capable of grasping the immensity of this extent or who are impressed with the full value and importance which this acquisition confers on our country. Even the best informed amongst us who contemplate the vast breadth of our possessions can form but imperfect theories of the immeasurable natural wealth it contains, and there are few who would venture to assign a limit to the national prosperity which in the future we may enjoy.

No single division of the British Empire wherever situated, in the Indian seas, in the south of Africa, or in the Australian antipodes, can compare with the Dominion in geographical extent. Of all countries owing allegiance to Queen Victoria no single land can more truly claim the appellation "Greater Britain."

The eve of the completion of a century since the greatest triumph of the famous traveller, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, suggests that we may recall his life and labours, and consider the results which have sprung from his remarkable discoveries or which have been influenced by them.

In 1789 Sir Alexander Mackenzie, then about thirty years of age, discovered the great river which bears his name, and descended its waters to the Arctic Ocean. He thus established the important truth that the northern part of this continent extends unbroken to the Arctic circle. Three years later he undertook his more famous expedition with the

design of penetrating the Rocky Mountains and pursuing his journey in a westerly direction until he found the Pacific. By the discoveries which Mackenzie effected on these expeditions new realms were brought within the influence of the Empire, and the great fact became established that the shores of the vast territory, now the Canadian Dominion, are buffeted by the billows of three oceans-the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Arctic.

The world is familiar with the story of the persevering and heroic efforts to find a north-west passage. We all know that many lives and an enormous amount of treasure have been sacrificed in fruitless attempts to discover a navigable channel in the northern hemisphere, from Europe to Asia. It is not so well remembered, however, that three centuries back the "North-West Passage" was alleged to have been found. I allude to the claim advanced by Juan de Fuca, that he had discovered open water through the continent and that a ship could pass in a given number of days from one ocean to the other. He set forth the character of the discovery claimed by him and described it as extending from the Pacific coast in the latitude of British Columbia on the west to Hudson Strait on the east, and that it was an open waterway generally direct in its course, with a width ranging from 30 to 40 leagues and upwards.

Belief in the alleged discovery among cartographers appears to have been universally entertained. De Fuca promulgated the statement in 1592, and maps published by the French and English Royal geographers in 1752 and 1768 show the defined passage I have described. The whole turned out to be a pure fiction. The first consequence of Mackenzie's travels was to prove irrefragably the non-existence of De Fuca's channel and to sweep away all belief concerning it. The only trace left of the geographical fraud is the name which is still retained by the inlet extending between Vancouver Island and Washington Territory, leading from the Pacific to the Gulf of Georgia. We are unable at the present day to estimate the great influence exercised on geographical science by this disclosure. The facts brought to light by the discoveries of Mackenzie distinctly established beyond all question that the shores of the continent on the Pacific side continue northward until they terminate within the Arctic circle.

An account of Mackenzie's travels was published in 1801. We possess in this volume a detailed narrative of his voyage from Montreal through the continent in 1789, 1793 and intervening years. The maps which accompany the volume present the true position of the lakes and rivers which he discovered; they likewise show the route he followed through

the mountains of British Columbia to the sea. These publications, the record of years of labour, set at rest the pretensions of De Fuca and demonstrate the absolute impossibility of any practicable passage for ships between the Atlantic and the Pacific through the northern continent; to attain which passage so many futile attempts have been made, and which have occupied so long and so fruitlessly the attention of governments and called forth the enterprising spirit of so many navigators.

On his second voyage, commenced early in 1792, Mackenzie left Montreal and penetrated to Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca, reaching the latter in October the same year. He had started with the design of finding a way through the Rocky Mountain range to the western coast. Whatever difficulties might present themselves he had resolved if at all possible to reach the Pacific Ocean. Without more delay than was necessary in preparing for the journey to the westward, he left Fort Chipewyan and proceeded up Peace River until his progress was impeded by ice. He was then forced to remain winter-bound until

the following spring.

On May 9th, 1793, when the river opened, the voyage was resumed. The expedition followed the Peace River to the Forks; one branch is named the Finlay, the other the Parsnip, the latter of which he traced nearly to its source. Arrived at this point, Mackenzie abandoned these waters and proceeded overland, cutting a passage through the woods so that he could carry the canoe. He continued by the trail formed until he reached a stream, the waters of which were flowing in the opposite direction to the current he had left on the eastern slope. This led to a great river called by the Indians of the locality Tacoutche; it is now known as the river Fraser; Mackenzie formed the opinion that it was the upper waters or a branch of the Columbia which river is known to discharge into the Pacific in about latitude forty-six. This was the common belief until 1808, when Simon Fraser descended the Tacoutche to the Gulf of Georgia, proving it to be an entirely independent stream, a discovery held to be so important that the name of Fraser was given to the river and which by common consent it still retains in honour of the man who first followed it to its mouth.

Mackenzie embarked in his canoe, floated down the Tacoutche five days; the party met Indian tribes, with some of whom difficulty was experienced. He learned from the Indians that the river they were descending was of great length and its navigation attended with many perils; his men became discouraged and mutinous; under the circumstances in which he was drifting he determined to abandon the attempt

to descend to the mouth of the supposed Columbia, and resolved to make the effort to reach the sea by a land route. In order to find the Indian trail which he learned would conduct him to the Pacific, the explorer had to turn back and ascend the Tacoutche for some distance. Although depressed at what he held to be a misfortune, this change of route led to the accomplishment of his purpose and enabled him to reach the sea in the space of sixteen days after leaving the main river. Mackenzie again had adventures with the different Indian tribes; he and his men underwent much hardship, and from the state of their provisions were placed on short allowance. The traveller, however, finally attained his long cherished purpose, he reached the shores of the Pacific overland from the Atlantic by a journey through the northern continent of such extent that it must be counted by degrees of longitude. The whole country he traversed is now embraced within the Dominion of Canada.

Every page of Mackenzie's journal shows that his explorations were not effected without constant toil and privation. The discouragements arising from the difficulties and dangers he experienced, and they were incessant, had no influence on his cool determination and dauntless spirit. The many tedious and weary days of physical labour and mental strain, the gloomy and inclement nights to which he was constantly exposed, were not, however, passed in vain; he gained his great reward in the knowledge that he had in the interest of his country attained the object of his long premeditated design; he had penetrated a vast continent for the most part in a condition of wild nature; he had overcome the obstacles imposed by rapid rivers previously unknown, by rugged mountain ranges, by distance, by intervening forests and by extremes of a variable climate. From time to time obstacles presented themselves in the enmity of hostile native tribes, who had never before looked upon the face of a white man, but on the day he arrived at the Pacific coast he had the unqualified satisfaction of feeling that his undertaking had been crowned with complete success. His discoveries settled the dubious point of a practicable north-west passage through the temperate zone; he set at rest forever this long agitated question with the disputes which had arisen regarding it; he added new regions to the realm of British commerce, and in doing so extended the boundaries of geographical science. He did much more, although the full effect of all he had accomplished was unknown to him, we can now, however, attribute to the enterprises to which Mackenzie's discoveries led, that the territory west of the Rocky Mountains became a British province; indeed it is problematical whether in the absence of his discoveries any portion of that country would at present constitute part of the Dominion of Canada.

Many, I think, will agree with me that among the men who have distinguished themselves in the annals of our country there is no name more illustrious than that of Sir Alexander Mackenzie. In my judgment there is no event which we can point to with greater interest and satisfaction than the completion of his perilous enterprise on that day, July 22nd, 1793, when, with his Canadian comrades, he floated in a small canoe on the tide-water of the Pacific.