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...

London: Printed for T.Cadell and W.Davies..., 1801. First Edition of “the earliest expedition made by a white man in this direction. His investigations, although pursued at so early a period of Arctic exploration, were remarkable for their accuracy; Sir John Franklin more than once expressed his surprise at being able to corroborate their correctness in his own explorations. Some Indian vocabularies are included...". (Sabin) Mackenzie's journals recount his two expeditions undertaken on behalf of the North West Company in its attempt to break the Hudson's Bay Company monopoly of the fur trade. The first expedition, in 1789, from Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabaska down Slave River to Great Slave Lake and then down what is now known as the Mackenzie River to the Arctic constitutes the first recorded trip to the Arctic from the Canadian prairies; the second, in 1792-93, from Fort Chipewyan along the Peace River, over the Rocky Mountains, and down the Bella Coola River to the Pacific, is distinguished as the first recorded crossing of the continent, north of Mexico. The maps are the earliest done of certain parts of Canada. Also included is a lengthy account of the development of the fur trade in the North West, generally attributed to the author's cousin, Roderick Mackenzie. Bell M20. Hill pp. 187-88. Howes M-133. Lande 1317. Morgan p. 240. Peel 25. Sabin 43714. Smith 6382. Strathern 343. Streeter VI 3653. TPL 658. Vlach 511. Wagner-Camp 1. Winsor VIII p. 34. 4to. pp. 1 p.l., viii, cxxxii, 412, [2]errata. without the half-title. 3 large folding engraved maps (1 with outline colour). engraved frontis. portrait. later half calf, top edge gilt (text lightly embrowned, some offsetting, short tears in upper blank margin of 1 map, short split in upper rear joint). elala5518