a good meal, and rum enough to raise their spirits, he addressed them, and they resolved to repair the canoe, and follow him wherever he pleased to lead. by the end of the following day their shattered vessel was repaired with bark, some pieces of oil-cloth, and plenty of gum. The next morning they proceeded, part by land carrying part of the lading, for they were fearful of overleading the canoe in its present weak state. It was necessary to open a road for these men; nor were those in the cance less painfully employed. After fourteen hours hard labour, they made only three miles, the course of the stream was so obstructed. One man now refused to proceed farther; he was shamed out of this resolution. A hole was broken in the canoe's bottom. When this was repaired, they were obliged to carry her through morasses, and almost impenetrable woods. The guide deserted in the night. When they reached the river, the drift wood again blocked it up. The cance was again unloaded, and carried three quarters of a mile through a continued swamp, where in many places they waded up to the middle of their thighs; but this effort was successful; "and at length," says Mr. Mackenzie, " we enjoyed the inexpres sible satisfaction of finding ourselves on the bank of a navigable river, on the west side of the first great range of

mountains."

The next party of Indians whom they encountered discharged a volley of arrows at them. Seeing that these people had sent a cance down the stream, as he supposed to communicate alarm, and procure assistance, Mr. Mackenzie proceeded, with equal prudence and courage, to conciliate them. He placed ene of his men in ambush, and advanced alone to the bank, holding cut glasses and beads to tempt some of them over. This succeeded; two of the natives came over, and a friendly intercourse was soon established, They represented the course of the river as rapid, and in some places impassable; and the natives, their next neighbours, as a savage race, to whom they would certainly fall a sacrifice if they proceeded. Two, how ever, of these people consented to accompany him some way. The information obtained from the next party convinced Mr. Mackenzie that it was hopeless to follow this river, They de

scribed the distance across the country to the Western Ocean as very short; and he himself thought it could not be above five or six degrees: he therefore resolved to attempt this route. It was necessary to return some way up the river, to the spot where the Indians were accustomed to strike inland. They built a new canoe, reached this spot in her, and left her there; and buried some provision and ammunition, which they could neither carry, nor trust to the Indians.

"We carried on our backs four bags and an half of pemmican, weighing from eightyfive to ninety pounds each; a case with my instruments, à parcel of goods for presents, weighing ninety pounds, and a parcel containing ammunition of the same weight. Each of the Canadians had a burden of about ninety pounds, with a gun, and some ammunition. The Indians had about forty-five pounds weight of pemmican to carry, besides their gun, &c. with which they were very much dissatisfied; and, if they had dared, would have instantly left us. They had hitherto been very much indulged, but the moment was now arrived when indulgence was no longer practicable. My own load, and that of Mr. Mackay, consisted of twenlittle sugar, &c. amounting in the whole to ty-two pounds of peaimican, some rice, a about seventy pounds each, besides our arms and ammunition. I had also the tube of my telescope swung across my shoulder, which was a troublesome addition to my burden. It was determined that we should content ourselves with two meals a day, which were regulated without difficulty, as our provisions did not require the ceremony of cooking. In this state of equipment we began our journey,"

After travelling a fortnight, they pro cured two canoes from a friendly tribe, and embarked on another river. They were evidently approaching the sea, and on the 20th of July they reached it, near the Cape Menzies of Vancouver. They landed at King's Island. A savage here became very troublesome, and in deed dangerous. White people had been there before; one of them, whom he called Macubah, had fired on him and his friends; and another, called Bensins, had struck him with the flat part of his sword. When these natives were offered, in exchange for an otter skin, what they did not choose to accept, they distinctly answered, no, no. Here our traveller ascertained his latitude, 52° 20′ 48′′, and inscribed, with vermilion and grease, upon a rock, this brief

memorial: "Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada by land, July 22, 1793."

On the 4th of August they arrived at the place where they had left their canoe, which, with the property they had left, and the stores which they had buried, they found perfectly safe. While upon this land-journey they had lost their dog, who went howling about the village ever since they left it, but only came into it at night to cat the fish he could find about the houses. "A's we were continuing our rout," says the author,

"We all felt the sensation of having found a lost friend at the sight of our dog; but he appeared, in some degree, to have lost his former sagacity. He ran in a wild way backwards and forwards; and, though he kept our road, I could not induce him to acknowledge his master. Sometimes he seemed disposed to approach, as if he knew us; and then, on a sudden, he would turn away, as if alarmed at our appearance. The poor animal was reduced almost to a skeleton, and we occasionally dropped something to support him, and by degrees he recovered his former sagacity."

They encountered fewer difficulties on their return, and on the 24th of August reached the place from whence they had set out. From the following passage, which is dated only two days before their return, it should seem that the adventurers were noways impaired in health by the fatigues of their enterprize.

"To give some notios of our appetites, I shall state the clk, or at least the carcase of it, which we brought away, to have weighed 250 pounds; and as we had taken a very hearty meal at one o'clock, it might naturally be supposed that we should not be very voracious at supper; nevertheless a kettle full of the elk-flesh was boiled and eaten, and that vessel replenished, and put on the fire: all that remained, with the bones, &c. was placed, after the Indian fashion, round the fire to roast; and at ten next morning the whole was consumed by ten persons, and a large dog, who was allowed his share of the banquet. This is no exaggeration ; nor did any inconvenience result from what may be considered as an inordinate indulgence."

Some curious facts respecting the Indians and their country are contained in this volume." I myself observed," says the traveller, "in a country which was in an absolute state of nature, that the climate is improving; and this cir

cumstance was confirmed to me by the native inhabitants of it." The information alluded to is remarkable.

"An Indian, in some measure, explained his age to me, by relating that he remembered the opposite hills and plains, now interspersed with groves of poplars, when they were covered with moss, and without any animal inhabitant but the rein-deer. By degrees, he said, the face of the country changed from the east, and was followed by the bufto its present appearance, when the elk came falo; the rein-deer then retired to the long range of high lands that, at a considerable distance, run parallel with this river."

One part of the country is described. to be so crowded with animals, as to have in some places the appearance of a stallyard, from the state of the ground, and the quantity of dung scattered over it. There is one tremendous account of a

storm.

"About seven, the sky to the westward became of a steel-blue colour, with lightning and thunder. We accordingly landed to prepare ourselves against the coming storm; but, before we could erect our tents, it came on with such violence, that we expected it to carry every thing before it. The ridgepole of my tent was broken in the middle, where it was sound, and nine inches and an half in circumference; and we were obliged to throw ourselves flat on the ground to escape being wounded by the stones that violence of the storm, however, subsided in were hurled about in the air like sand. The a short time, but left the sky overcast by the appearance of rain."

The picture of savage life is disgusting, and evidently faithful.

cessity of shooting one of their dogs, as we could not keep those animals from our luggase. It was in vain that I had remonstrated on this subject, so that I was obliged to commit the act which has been just mentioned. When these people heard the report of the pistol, and saw the dog dead, they were seized with a very general alarm, and the women took their children on their backs and ran into the woods. I ordered the cause of this act of severity to be explained, with the assurance that no injury would be offered to themselves. The woman, however, to whom the dog belonged, was very much affected, and declared that the loss of

"About sun-set I was under the ne

five children, during the preceding winter, had not affected her so much as the death of this animal. But her grief was not of very long duration; and a few beads, &c. soon assuaged her sorrow. But as they can without difficulty get rid of their affliction, they can with equal case assume it, and feigu

rkness, if it be necessary, with the same versatility. When we arrived this morning, we found the women in tears, from an apprehension that we were come to take thein away. To the eye of an European they certainly were objects of disgust; but there were those among my party who observed some hidden charms in these females which rendered them objects of desire, and means were found, I believe, that very soon dissipated their alarms, and subdued their coy

Dess.

manner.

"On the 12th the hunter arrived, having left his mother-in-law, who was lately be come a widow with three small children, and in actual labour of a fourth. Her daughter related this circumstance to the women here, without the least appearance of concern, though she represented her as in a state of great danger, which probably might proceed from her being abandoned in this unnatural At the same time without any apparent consciousness of her own barbarous negligence; if the poor abandoned woman should die, she would most probably lament her with great outeries, and, perhaps, cut off one or two joints of her fingers as tokens of her grief. The Indians, indeed, consider the state of a woman in labour as among the most trifling occurrences of corporeal pain to which human nature is subject, and they may be, in some measure justified in this apparent insensibility from the circumstances of that situation among themselves. It is by no means uncommon in the hasty removal of their camps from one position to another, for a woman to be taken in labour, to deliver herself in her way, without any assistance or notice from her associates in the journey, and to overtake them before they complete the arrangements of their evening station, with her new-born babe on her back.

"At half past four o'clock this morning I was awakened to be informed that an Indian had been killed. I accordingly hastened to the camp where I found two women employed in rolling up the dead body of a man, called the White Partridge, in a beaver robe, which I had lent him. He had received four mortal wounds from a dagger, two within the collar-bone, one in the left breast, and another in the small of the back, with two cuts across his head. The murderer, who had been my hunter throughout the winter, had fled, and it was pretended that several relations of the deceased were gone in pursuit of him. The history of this unfor

tunate event is as follows:

"These two men had been comrades for four years; the murderer had three wives; and the young man who was killed becoming enamoured of one of them, the husband consented to yield her to him, with the reserved power of claiming her as his property, when it should be his pleasure. This connection was uninterrupted for near three years, when, whimsical as it may appear,

the husband became jealous, and the public amour was suspended. The parties, "however, made theit private assignations, which caused the woman to be so ill-treated by her husband, that the paramour was determined to take her away by force; and this project ended in his death. This is a very common practice among the Indians, and generally terminates in very serious and fatal quarrels."

Puberty, Mr. Mackenzie says, sometimes commences as early as at 11 or 12. This is extraordinary in so cold a latitude. Polygamy is practised, and produces its constant train of vices. The people are jealous, and their anger then knows no bounds, yet they make no scruple to lend their wives. A party with whom the travellers fell in, retired with their children into the woods to sleep, and resigned their beds and the partners of them to Mr. Mackenzie's followers. With a single exception, none of these people knew his own age! They are indeed below the level of brutes, inasmuch as the reason they possess is uniformly directed to mischievous purposes. In all animals cleanliness seems an instinct; even ducks and swine are only filthy when domesticated. These Indians live amid their own excrement without annoyance. Mr. Mackenzie proposed to one of his guides to sleep with him, being fearful that he would desert in the night. He had no covering except a beaver garment, and that was a nest of vermin. "However," he says, "I spread it under us, and having laid down upon it, we covered ourselves with my camlet cloak. My compa nion's hair being greased with fish oil, and his body smeared with red earth, my sense of smelling as well as that of feeling, threatened to interrupt my rest; but these inconveniences yielded to my fatigue, and I passed a night of sound repose." The men of one tribe have a small stick hanging by a string from one of the locks, which "they employ to allcviate any itching or irritation in the head." This, however, is not altogether so unlike civilised custom; our old ladies of the last century used to employ a little hand, neatly carved in ivory, to alleviate any itching or irritation in the ba k.

The tribes who dwell nearer the sea, seem to be a better race. The description of their temples even indicates some degree of art.

"Near the house of the chief I observed.

several oblong squares, of about 20 feet by eight. They were made of thick cedar boards, which were joined with so much neatness, that I at first thought they were one piece. They were painted with hieroglyphics, and figures of different animals, and with a degree of correctness that was not to be expected from such an uncultivated people. I could not learn the use of them, but they appeared to be calculated for occasional acts of devotion or sacrifice, which all these tribes perform at least twice in the year, at the spring and fall. I was confirm ed in this opinion by a large building in the middle of the village, which I at first took for the half finished frame of an house. The ground plot of it was 50 feet by 45; each end is formed by four stout posts, fixed perpendicularly in the ground. The corner ones are plain, and support a beam of the whole length, having three intermediate props on each side, but of a larger size, and or 9 feet in height. The two centre posts, at each end, are two feet and a half in diameter, and carved into human figures, supporting two ridge poles on their heads, at 12 feet from the ground. The figures at the upper part of this square represent two persons with their hands upon their knees, as if they supported the weight with pain and difficulty: the others opposite to them stand at their ease, with their hands resting on their hips. In the area of the building there were the remains of several fires. The posts, poles, and figures, were painted red and black; but the sculpture of these people is superior to their painting.”

Age, so cruelly abandoned by the Indians about Hudson's Bay, is among these people an object of great veneration, One party were carrying an old woman by turns on their backs, who was quite blind and infirm from the very advanced period of her life. They also weed the graves of the dead, a custom to which they are particularly attentive; the more northern tribe, on the contrary, destroy every thing belonging to a deceased person, except what they bury with him, that he may not be brought to their recollection. They are said not to be polygamists, and the women are there fore better treated. The men took a greater share in their toil, and they lived in a state of comparative comfort. They boil water in a basket by throwing hot stones in it.

One of the Indians surprised Mr. Mackenzie by a very unexpected ques

tion in return, when he had been inter rogated respecting the country.

"What,' demanded, he can be the reason that you are so particular and anxious in your inquiries of us respecting a knowledge of this country: do not you white men know every thing in the world? This interrogatory was so very unexpected, that it occasioned some hesitation before I could answer it. At length, however, I replied, that we certainly were acquainted with the principal circumstances of every part of the world, that I knew where the sea is, and where I myself then was, but that I did not exactly understand what obstacles might interrupt me in getting to it; with which he and his relations must be well acquainted, as they had so frequently surmounted them. Thus I fortunately preserved the impression in their minds of the superiority of white people over themselves."

The importance which Mr. Mackenzie in his preface annexes to his discoveries, excited expectations in us which the work itself certainly has not answered. His first voyage* has by no means disproved the existence of a north west passage; on the contrary, it has rather made it more probable that such a passage may actually exist. His second, we think, has as little proved the practicability of a commercial communication through the continent of North America, between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. The course which he himself has taken is evidently too difficult, and the one which he recommends is known only by the report of the Indians; another voyage is therefore necessary to ascertain it. What then has the traveller discovered? that going sometimes by land and sometimes by water, it is possible to penetrate from fort Chepewyan to the Pacific. But who ever doubted this?

The book itself, though in many parts interesting, wants perspicuity. Sometimes the author is provokingly minute; but when he arrives at the Icy Sea, he is as provokingly inaccurate. It is impossible not to compare his journal with that of Mr. Hearne, an adventurer in the same trade, travelling in the same country; and compared with that excellent work, this is indeed miserably meagre.