Mckenzie Roderick
Cousin of Sir Alexander Mackenzie. Came to Canada
from Scotland in 1784, and entered the service of the fur-trading firm
of Gregory, McTavish & Co., of Montreal. The following year reached
Grand Portage, where employed as a clerk. Accompanied his cousin to the
far West in 1786; built the original Fort Chipewyan, on the south shore
of Lake Athabaska, in 1788; and in charge of the post during Alexander
Mackenzie's expedi
ions of 1789 and 1792 to the Arctic and Pacific. In
1797, on his way to Montreal, after a long absence, rediscovered the old
Kaministiquia route, first discovered by the French many years before,
but afterwards abandoned. Became a partner of the North West Company,
1799; and signed the Montreal agreement of 1804 by which the X Y Company
was absorbed by the North West Company. A year or two later retired from
the fur trade, and began gathering material for a history of the North
West Company. The work was never published, nor even completed, but many
of the original journals which were to have formed its basis are
included in Masson's Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest. Settled
at Terrebonne, in Lower Canada, and became a member of the Legislative
Council of the province. =Index=: (Mackenzie / Selkirk / Simpson era) Joins X Y Company, 14; friendly
rivalry with McGillivray (North West Company) in English River
department, 15; at Ile a la Crosse, 16; brings news of death of Ross to
Grand Portage, 16; joins his cousin Alexander Mackenzie in Athabaska
department, 23; their friendship, 23; his Reminiscences, 24; builds
Fort Chipewyan, 24; plans library there, 26; winters there, 1788-1789,
27; at Chipewyan, 53; goes down to Grand Portage, 53; sent to Great
Slave Lake, 54. =Bib.=: Reminiscences in Masson, Bourgeois de la
Compagnie du Nord-Ouest; Bryce, Hudson's Bay Company; Burpee, Search
for the Western Sea.