BOURGEOIS - Toronto Public Library

44 RODERIC MOKENZIE
at work that he has no time to write you. Mayall happiness
attend you! Adieu!
" Dear Roderic,
" Yours unchangeably,
" ALEX. MACKENZIE".
The following is an extract of a long letter dated Fort Chipewen
13th January 1794 ...................................................... ..
(, I wish we eould contrive matters so that we could both go
to the Portage. The Premier (1) having arrived from England
we may expect him at the Grand Portage, where it will be right
that all the interested should meet him.
" I am fully bent upon going down, for I think it unpardonable
for any body to remain in this country who can leave it.
What a pretty situation I am in this winter, starving and alone,
without the power of doing myself or any body else any good I
The boy at Lac La Loche, or even my own servant, is equal to the
performance of my winter oCl:upation, and the profits, I am
afraid, will be so small during the war, that it will not be worth
any man's while to remain in it".
" Dear Roderic,
" Fort Chipewean, 5 March
Hi. .Jour- "It is now the season I promised to write to you, and would
nal.
wish I could fulfill another promise I made you last Fall and
this winter. I need not tell you I mean" my Journal."· But be
assured it is as great a disappointment to me as to yourself, for
(1) Mr. Simon MoTavish wns very much disliked by the majority of the wintering
pa.rtners who, on account of his haughty demeanor, called him" The Premier" ., Th8"
Marquis."