Details
SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE (c.1755-1820).
Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Laurence, through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans; in the Years 1789 and 1793. With a preliminary account of the .... Fur Trade of that country. London: T. Cadell, Jun., 1801. 4° (267 x 205mm). Final errata leaf, portrait frontispiece after Lawrence, 3 folding maps, one coloured in outline. (Lacking half-title, tiny tear at fold of first map, light offsetting from plate and maps, occasional light spotting.) Contemporary half calf, marbled-paper boards, gilt spine (boards lightly rubbed, small splits along spine). Provenance: John Kynaston Powell (bookplate).
"FIRST and finest edition of the earliest expedition made by a white man in this direction" (Sabin). Mackenzie set out from Fort Chippewayan on 3 June 1789, accompanied by Canadians and Indians in birchbark canoes, to explore the uncharted north-west region with a view to discovering a practicable North-West passage. He descended the eponymous Mackenzie River to the Arctic Sea, demonstrating that, while navigable, it was not a commercially viable passage. This made finding a transcontinental passage even more important for British trade, and in his second and more arduous expedition in 1792-3, Mackenzie set out to reach the Pacific Ocean. He was successful and became the first white man to cross the Rocky (then Chippewayan) Mountains, arriving at the Pacific near Cape Menzies. Mackenzie's discoveries were not only hugely beneficial to British trade in North America, but formed the basis for later Arctic exploration, and the remarkable accuracy of his accounts was noted by Sir John Franklin. Mackenzie's detailed history of the fur trade opens the volume, and it contains a limited dictionary of useful words in Knisteneo and Algonquin and examples of Chippewayan. Sabin 43414; Howes USiana M-133.
Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Laurence, through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans; in the Years 1789 and 1793. With a preliminary account of the .... Fur Trade of that country. London: T. Cadell, Jun., 1801. 4° (267 x 205mm). Final errata leaf, portrait frontispiece after Lawrence, 3 folding maps, one coloured in outline. (Lacking half-title, tiny tear at fold of first map, light offsetting from plate and maps, occasional light spotting.) Contemporary half calf, marbled-paper boards, gilt spine (boards lightly rubbed, small splits along spine). Provenance: John Kynaston Powell (bookplate).
"FIRST and finest edition of the earliest expedition made by a white man in this direction" (Sabin). Mackenzie set out from Fort Chippewayan on 3 June 1789, accompanied by Canadians and Indians in birchbark canoes, to explore the uncharted north-west region with a view to discovering a practicable North-West passage. He descended the eponymous Mackenzie River to the Arctic Sea, demonstrating that, while navigable, it was not a commercially viable passage. This made finding a transcontinental passage even more important for British trade, and in his second and more arduous expedition in 1792-3, Mackenzie set out to reach the Pacific Ocean. He was successful and became the first white man to cross the Rocky (then Chippewayan) Mountains, arriving at the Pacific near Cape Menzies. Mackenzie's discoveries were not only hugely beneficial to British trade in North America, but formed the basis for later Arctic exploration, and the remarkable accuracy of his accounts was noted by Sir John Franklin. Mackenzie's detailed history of the fur trade opens the volume, and it contains a limited dictionary of useful words in Knisteneo and Algonquin and examples of Chippewayan. Sabin 43414; Howes USiana M-133.