was to be the area of his discoveries and his fame.  His energy and skill were amazing, although like many of his class, he had to battle against the envy of rivals.  After completely planning his expedition, he made a dash for the Arctic Sea, by way of Mackenzie River, which he—­first of white men—­descended, and which bears his name.  Finding his astronomical knowledge defective, he took a year off, and in his native land learned the use of the instruments needed in exploration.  After his return he ascended the Peace River, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and on a rock on the shore of the Pacific Ocean in British Columbia, inscribed with vermillion and grease, in large letters, “Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the Twenty-second of July, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-three.”  That was his record as the first white man to cross North America, north of Mexico.  A few years afterwards he received the honor of knighthood for his discoveries.  He gained much distinction as a leader, though the great McTavish in his Company was never very friendly to him.  At length he retired, became a representative in the legislature of Lower Canada, and was for a time a travelling companion of the Duke of Kent.  With a desire for loftier station, he settled in his native land, married the beautiful and gifted daughter of the House of Seaforth, and from her enjoyed the property of Avoch, near Inverness.

Three years before the starting of Lord Selkirk’s Colonists and before his marriage with Geddes Mackenzie, Sir Alexander took up his abode in Scotland.  He was the guardian of the rights of the North-West Company and manfully he stood for them.

Mackenzie was startled when he heard in 1810 of Lord Selkirk’s scheme to send his Colonists to Red River.  This he thought to be a plan of the Hudson’s Bay Company, to regain their failing prestige and to strike a blow at the Nor’-Wester trade.  To the fur trader or the rancher, the incoming of the farmer is ever obnoxious.  The beaver and the mink desert the streams whenever the plowshare disturbs the soil.  The deer flee to their coverts, the wolf and the fox are exterminated, and even the muskrat has a troubled existence when the dog and cat, the domestic animals, make their appearance.  The proposed settlement is to be opposed, and Lord Selkirk’s plans thwarted at any cost.  Lord Selkirk had in the eyes of the Nor’-Westers much presumption, indeed nothing less than to buy out the great Hudson’s Bay Company, which for a century and a half had controlled nearly one-half of North America.  The Nor’-Westers—­Alexander Mackenzie, Inglis and Ellice—­made sport of the thing as a dream.  But the “eccentric Lord” was buying up stock and majorities rule in Companies as in the nation.  Contempt and abuse gave place to settled anxiety and in desperation at last the trio of opponents, two days before the meeting, purchased L2,500 of stock, not enough to appreciably affect the vote, but enough to give them a footing in the Hudson’s Bay Company, and to secure information of value to them.