The travellers now began to get within touch of the Eskimo and to hear of their occasional raids up the river from the sea.  They were said to use slings, from which they flung stones with such dexterity as to prove formidable in their fights with the Amerindians, who regarded them with great respect, the more so because of their intercourse with the mysterious white people (Russians) from whom they obtained iron.

Mackenzie just managed to reach within sight of the sea, beyond the delta of the river, his most northern point being about 69 deg. 14” north latitude.  Hence he gazed out northwards over a vast expanse of piled-up ice in which several small islands were embedded.  In the spaces of open water whales were visible (the small white whale, Beluga).  The water in between the islands was affected by the tide.  The travellers had, in fact, reached the Arctic ocean.  But, owing to the fickleness of their guides, and the danger of being detained by some obstacle in these northern latitudes without proper supplies for the winter, Mackenzie was afraid to stay for further investigations, and on July 16, 1789, turned his back on the sea and commenced his return journey up the stream of the great river which was henceforth to bear his name.

The strength of the current made the homeward travel much more lengthy and tedious.  The Indians of the party were troublesome, and the principal guide, English Chief, was sulky and disobedient.  This man had insisted on being accompanied by two of his wives, of whom he was so morbidly jealous that he could scarcely bring himself to leave them for an hour in order to go hunting or to prospect the country; consequently he did little or nothing in the killing of game, and this kept the expedition on very small rations.  Mackenzie got wroth with him, and so gave him a sound rating.  This irritated English Chief to a high degree, and after a long and vehement harangue he burst into tears and loud and bitter lamentations.  Thereat his friends and wives commenced crying and wailing vociferously, though they declared that their tears were shed, not for any trouble between the white man and English Chief, but because they suddenly recollected all the friends and relations they had lost within the last few years!  “I did not interrupt their grief for two hours, but as I could not well do without them, I was at length obliged to sooth it and induce the chief to change his resolution (to leave me), which he did with great apparent reluctance.”

Later on English Chief told Mackenzie that he feared he might have to go to war, because it was a custom amongst the Athapaskan chiefs to make war after they had given way to the disgrace attached to such a feminine weakness as shedding tears.  Therefore he would undertake a warlike expedition in the following spring, but in the meantime he would continue with Mackenzie as long as he wanted him.

Mackenzie, rejoining Le Roux at the Slave Lake, safely reached his station at Fort Chipewayan on September 12, 1789, just as the approach of winter was making travel in these northern regions dangerous to those who relied on unfrozen water as a means of transit.