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.



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