Volume 1

2l6
EN ROUTE FOR KAMINISTIQUIA.
Mr. Cameron Lake
;
river, myself.
Winipic, Mr. McKenzie '* ; Lower
Red
We had but a scanty stock of provisions, and
not one pack or package. Some had neither tent nor
blanket. Everything went over the portages at one trip.
Canoes and all at full trot ; embarked all hands helter-skel-
1803-04 ; left Apr. 29th, 1804, for Kaministiquia. He signed the Montreal
agreement of Nov. 5th, 1804, by his attys. He wintered, 1805-06, at Leech 1.:
see Pike, ed. 1895, pp. 154, 155, 171, 172, 173, 174, 180, 241, 247, 250,
254, 274.—Memoranda applicable either to A. or H. McGillis are :
" Mr."
McGillis, clerk N. W. Co. for Red Deer r., left Grand Portage with David
Thompson at 9 a. m. Wednesday, Aug. gth, 1797. " Mr." McGillis was at
Winnipeg House, July 31st, 1798. "Mr." McGillis' Indian father-in-law was
met on Lake Winnipeg, Aug. 23d, 1804. " Mr." McGillis arrived at Fort William
on the Invincible at 2 p. m. Sunday, Aug. 2d, 18 12.
'^ It is always difidcult, and as a rule impossible, to identify a Mackenzie or
McKenzie whose full name is not given, and in the present case I am entirely in
the dark, I speak elsewhere of Sir Alexander McKenzie, the most commanding
figure in all these annals ; of his cousin, Hon. Roderic McKenzie, and of
another Roderic McKenzie ; of Charles McKenzie, whom we shall find at the
Mandans with Henry in 1806 ; of Donald McKenzie, the overland Astorian,
whom we shall find on the Columbia with Henry ; and of many others. But I
find no better place than this to record some memoranda of Daniel McKenzie
and James McKenzie, without raising any question of the pertinence of these
names in the present connection.
Daniel McKenzie of the N. W. Co. is named by Thompson at Grand Portage,
July 22d, 1797, as agent for Fort des Prairies and Red Deer r. He was a
proprietor of the company in 1799 in the Upper Fort des Prairies and Rocky
Mourttain Depts. He arrived at Fort George on the Saskatchewan Sept. 22d,
1799, from Turtle r., and left for Fort Augustus Sept. 25th.; with him were
Messrs. Stuart and King. He was on the Kaministiquia route in Aug., — 1804,
and he signed the Montreal agreement of Nov. 5th, 1804, by his attys. " D."
McKenzie was held by ice on Lac la Rouge, with 34 packs, June 14th, 1812, and
this was not Donald McKenzie, who was then on the Columbia.
James McKenzie, brother of Hon. Roderic McKenzie, entered the N. W.
Co. in 1794. He arrived at Grand Portage from Athabasca July 2d, 1798, and
left for Athabasca July loth, 1798. There he had charge of Fort Chipewyan,
winter of 1799-1800, with W. F. Wentzel : see his Journal, pub. 1890 in Masson,
II. pp. 371-99. He became a partner of the N. W. Co. in 1802, and
settled at Quebec in charge of the King's Posts leased by the company : see his
account of them in Masson, /. c, pp. 401-54. He signed the Montreal agreement
of Nov. 5th, 1804, by his attys. He died at Quebec in 1849, leaving two
sons and two daughters. One of the former, Keith McKenzie, of the H. B.
Co., was living in 1889 ; one of the daughters became Mrs. Patrick, and the
other was in 1889 widow of Lt. Col. McDougall of Kingston (Masson, I. p. 56).