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. With a Preliminary Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Fur Trade of That Country

London: T. Cadell, W. Davies, Cobbett and Morgan, and W. Creech, 1801. First edition. Engraved portrait by Condé after Lawrence and 3 large folding engraved maps (one colored in outline). viii,cxxxii,412,[2]pp. 1 vols. 4to. Modern full red calf in antique style by Aquarius, spine gilt extra. Minor dampstaining, occasional minor offsetting. One map with small marginal tear not affecting image. Untrimmed. First edition. Engraved portrait by Condé after Lawrence and 3 large folding engraved maps (one colored in outline). viii,cxxxii,412,[2]pp. 1 vols. 4to. First edition of this first account of an ocean-to-ocean crossing of the North American continent and a primary account of the fur trade.

Alexander Mackenzie was "the first white man to cross the continent and his journal...is of surpassing interest" (Wagner-Camp). The present work is the first published account of the two exploring expeditions that Mackenzie made on behalf of the North West Company as part of their attempt to break the Hudson's Bay Company's stranglehold on the fur trade. The author was born in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland in 1764, came to North America in 1774, was employed as a clerk in the fur trade in 1779, and by 1787 he was a wintering partner in the North West Company, posted at Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca.

Mackenzie set out on his first expedition on June 3, 1789, armed with information and maps provided by fur trader Peter Pond. He had decided to follow a large river flowing west from Great Slave Lake in search of a northwest passage to the Pacific. The expedition was partially successful: on July 13, Mackenzie and his party reached salt water, but it proved to be the Beaufort Sea rather than the Pacific Ocean.

After a further two years in the fur trade in Canada, Mackenzie returned to England in the autumn of 1791 to study navigation and astronomy, as the first expedition had demonstrated to him that he needed more expertise in these areas. He returned to Canada in the spring of 1792 and made his way west to the newly built Fort Fork, near the junction of the Peace and Smoky rivers.

In May 1793, having spent the winter making preparations, Mackenzie left on what was to be his greatest journey. After a difficult passage by canoe and on foot through the Rockies, he and his party arrived at the Pacific near Bella Coola, British Columbia on July 22, 1793. He returned to Grand Portage in 1794 and subsequently to Montreal, where he acted as an agent for the North West Company until 1799, when he retired to England. His great achievement did not receive the wide acknowledgment it deserved until the present work was published, and his subsequent and equally important proposals drawing attention to the importance of the Pacific Coast. In 1802, Mackenzie was knighted by George III and went on to serve as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada from 1804 to 1808.

The "Map of Mackenzie's track from Ft. Chipewyan to the Pacific Ocean in 1793" was a milestone, and as Wheat says, "at once questions began to be raised about the now patent inadequacies of all prior maps of the American Far West."

A landmark work on the exploration of North America, Jefferson was an early and attentive reader, with his secretary Meriwether Lewis, whom Jefferson appointed to the command of the expedition this volume inspired. This copy with a presentation inscription from the author on the title reading: "A. MacKenzie to his friend L.M. Ashfield."

A cornerstone in any collection of North American travel and exploration. Howes M133 ("b"); Sabin 43414; Graff 2630; Wagner-Camp 1:1; TPL 658; Peel 22; Pilling 2384; Smith 6382; Streeter 3653; Wheat, Transmississippi 251; Hill, p.187; Ricks, p. 149; Lande 1317; Field 967; Reese, Best of the West 22