Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

First Across the Continent: Sir Alexander Mackenzie

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Seeking the Northwest Passage and the fabled like to Russia, Japan, and Cathay, Alexander Mackenzie drove himself and his men relentlessly, by canoe and portage, across the uncharted rivers, valleys, and mountains of North America. Mackenzie's 1789 journey to the Arctic Ocean and his arduous journey to the Pacific in 1793 predate the Lewis and Clark expedition. By the age of thirty-one Alexander Mackenzie had become the first man to cross North America from the northwestern hub of the interior trade, Lake Athabasca in present-day northern Alberta, to the Pacific Ocean. He had opened the continent to trade and exploration.

Mackenzie was a man of enormous ego and overpowering ambition. He left Scotland in search of opportunity in the North American fur trade and achieved success through a combination of bold exploits, grim determination, and business acumen. Mackenzie returned to his homeland late in life to be knighted, marry, and live a more genteel life, leaving behind a Métis family in North America. His celebrated book Voyages from Montreal remains an enduring classic of world travel literature.

In his research, Barry Gough traveled from Mackenzie's birthplace to his tomb and from Montreal to the Arctic Ocean and to the Pacific. He takes the reader along with Mackenzie on his hazardous travels and voyages, using contemporary accounts to bring to life the problems and perils faced by the young explorer.

First Across the Continent reveals the international impact of Sir Alexander Mackenzie's expeditions and places him among the elite of New World explorers, illuminating his vital role in the history of the fur trade and the American West.

Language: English

Pages: 264

Format: Paperback

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Release: September 15, 1997

ISBN: 0806130024

ISBN 13: 9780806130026

First Across the Continent: Sir Alexander Mackenzie

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Seeking the Northwest Passage and the fabled like to Russia, Japan, and Cathay, Alexander Mackenzie drove himself and his men relentlessly, by canoe and portage, across the uncharted rivers, valleys, and mountains of North America. Mackenzie's 1789 journey to the Arctic Ocean and his arduous journey to the Pacific in 1793 predate the Lewis and Clark expedition. By the age of thirty-one Alexander Mackenzie had become the first man to cross North America from the northwestern hub of the interior trade, Lake Athabasca in present-day northern Alberta, to the Pacific Ocean. He had opened the continent to trade and exploration.

Mackenzie was a man of enormous ego and overpowering ambition. He left Scotland in search of opportunity in the North American fur trade and achieved success through a combination of bold exploits, grim determination, and business acumen. Mackenzie returned to his homeland late in life to be knighted, marry, and live a more genteel life, leaving behind a Métis family in North America. His celebrated book Voyages from Montreal remains an enduring classic of world travel literature.

In his research, Barry Gough traveled from Mackenzie's birthplace to his tomb and from Montreal to the Arctic Ocean and to the Pacific. He takes the reader along with Mackenzie on his hazardous travels and voyages, using contemporary accounts to bring to life the problems and perils faced by the young explorer.

First Across the Continent reveals the international impact of Sir Alexander Mackenzie's expeditions and places him among the elite of New World explorers, illuminating his vital role in the history of the fur trade and the American West.

Language: English

Pages: 264

Format: Paperback

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Release: September 15, 1997

ISBN: 0806130024

ISBN 13: 9780806130026

More books from Barry M. Gough

The Road to War, 1904-1914

4.4/5 ( ratings)

Fortune's A River: The Collision of Empires in Northwest America

3.4/5 ( ratings)

Juan de Fuca's Strait: Voyages in the Waterway of Forgotten Dreams

3.8/5 ( ratings)

The Elusive Mr. Pond: The Soldier, Fur Trader and Explorer Who Opened the Northwest

2.8/5 ( ratings)

Churchill and Fisher: Titans at the Admiralty

4.6/5 ( ratings)

Operation Menace: The Dakar Expedition and the Dudley North Affair

4.4/5 ( ratings)

Fighting Sail on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay: The War of 1812 and Its Aftermath

3.2/5 ( ratings)

Britannia's Navy on the West Coast of North America, 1812-1914

4.7/5 ( ratings)

Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority And Northwest Coast Indians, 1846 90

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Through Water, Ice & Fire: Schooner Nancy of the War of 1812

New Dimensions in Ethnohistory: Papers of the Second Laurier Conference on Ethnohistory and Ethnology (Canadian Museum of Civilization Mercury Series)

William Robert Broughton's Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific 1795-1798

From the Dardanelles to Oran: Studies of the Royal Navy in War and Peace, 1915-1914

From the Dardanelles to Oran: Studies of the Royal Navy in War and Peace, 1915-1940

From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, Volume III: Jutland and After May to December 1916

The Falkland Islands/Malvinas: The Contest for Empire in the South Atlantic

Pax Britannica: Ruling the Waves and Keeping the Peace before Armageddon

Historical Dictionary of Canada (Historical Dictionaries of the Americas)

The Journal of Alexander Henry the Younger, 1799-1814: Volume 1: Red River and the Journey to the Missouri

Distant Dominion: Britain And The Northwest Coast Of North America, 1579 1809

Rate this book!

Write a review?