ON MACKENZIE'S TRAVELS In the interior of North America. THE general interest, with which travels are read, may perhaps be caused by the inconstancy and satiety of the human heart. Tired of the society with which we live, and of the vexations which surround us, we like to lose ourselves in the contemplation of distant countries, and among unknown nations. If the people, described to us, are happier than ourselves, their happiness diverts us; if more unfortunate, their afflictions are consolatory to us. But the interest, attached to the recital of travels, is every day diminishing in proportion to the increase of travellers. A philosophical spirit has caused the wonders of the desert to disappear, "The magic woods have lost their former charm," as Fontanes says. When the first Frenchman, who investigated the shores of Canada, spoke of lakes similar to seas; cataracts which fall from Heaven, and forests the depth of which could not be explored, the mind was much more strongly moved than when an English merchant, or a modern Savant tells you that he has penetrated to the Pacific Ocean, and that the fall of Niagara is only a hundred and forty-four feet in depth. What we gain in knowledge, by such information, we lose in sentiment. Geometrical truths have destroyed certain truths of the imagination, which are more important to morality than is supposed. Who were the first travellers of antiquity? The legislators, poets, and heroes-Jacob, Lycurgus, Pythagoras, Homer, Hercules, Alexander. The "dies peregrinationis" are mentioned in Genesis. At that time every thing was prodigious without ceasing to be real, and the hopes of these exlated men burst forth in the exclamation of "Terra ignota! Terra immensa !”* The We naturally dislike to be confined within bounds, and I could almost say that the globe is become too small for man since he has sailed round it. If the night be more favourable than the day to inspiration and vast conceptions, it is because it conceals all limits, and assumes the appearance of immensity. The French and English travellers seem, like the warriors of those two nations, to have shared the empire of the earth and ocean. latter have no one, whom they can oppose to Tavernier, Chardin, Parennin, and Charlevoix, nor can they boast of any great work like the "Lettres Edifiantes;" but the former, in their turn, possess no Anson, Byron, Cook, or Vancouver. The French travellers have done more than those of the rival nation towards making us acquainted with the manners and customs of foreign countries-noon egno-mores cognovit ; but the English have been more useful as to the progress of universal geography-en ponto pathen,† in mari passus est. They share with the Spaniards and Portuguese the honour of * Oh land unknown, oh land of vast extent! having added new seas and new continents to the globe, and of having fixed the limits of the earth. The prodigies of navigation are perhaps those, which afford the highest idea of human genius. The reader trembles, and is full of admiration when he sees Columbus plunging into the solitudes of an unknown ocean, Vasco de Gama doubling the cape of Tempests, Magellan emerging from a vast ocean to enter one vaster still, and Cook flying from one pole to the other, bounded on all sides by the shores of the globe, and unable to find more seas for his vessels. What a beautiful spectacle does this navigator afford, when seeking unknown lands, not to oppress the inhabitants, but to succour and enlighten them; bearing to poor savages the requisites of life; swearing, on their charming banks, to maintain concord and amity with these simple children of nature; sowing among icy regions the fruits of a milder climate, and thus imitating Providence, who foresaw the fall and the wants of man! Death having not permitted Captain Cook to complete his important discoveries, Captain Vancouver was appointed by the British Government to visit all the A. merican coast from California to Cook's River or Inlet, as it is sometimes called, and to remove all doubts, which might yet remain concerning a passage to the North West of the New World. While this able officer fulfilled his mission with equal intelligence and courage, another English traveller, taking his departure from Upper Canada, proceeded across deserts and through forests to the North Sea and Pacific Ocean. Mr. Mackenzie, of whose travels I am about to speak, neither pretends to the honour of being a'scientific man, nor a writer. He was simply carrying on a traffic with the Indians in furs, and modestey gives his account to the public as only the journal of his expedition. Some times, however, he interrupts the thread of his narrative to describe a scene of nature or the manners of the savages; but he never possesses the art of turning to his advantage those little occurrences, which are so interesting in the recitals of our missionaries. The reader is scarcely informed who were the companions of the author's fatigues. No transport is exhibited on discovering the ocean, which was the wished for object of his enterprize, no scenes of tenderness at his return. In a word, the reader is never embarked in the canoe with the traveller, and never partakes of his fears, his hopes and his perils. Another great fault is discoverable in this work. It is unfortunate that a simple journal should be deficient in method and perspicuity, but Mr. Mackenzie manages his subject in a confused way. He never states where Fort Chepewyan is, from which he first sets out; what discoveries had been made in the regions he was about to visit, before he undertook to explore them; whether the place, at which he stops near the entrance of the Frozen Sea, was a bay, or merely an expansion of the river, as one is led to suppose. How can the traveller too be certain that this great river of the West, which he calls Tacoutche Tessé is the river of Columbia, since he did not go down to its mouth? How happens it that part of the course of this river, which he did not visit, is nevertheless marked upon his map? &c. &c. In spite of these numerous defects, the merit of Mr. Mackenzie's journal is very great, but it requires commentaries, at one time to give an idea of the deserts which the traveller is crossing, and impart a little spirit to the meagre dryness of his narrative, at another to explain some point of geography left in an obscure state by the author. These omissions I will attempt to supply. Spain, England, and France owe all their American possessions to three Italians, Columbus, Cabot, and Verazani. The genius of Italy, buried under its ruins, like the giants under the mountains which they had piled upon each other, appears now and then to awake, for the purpose of astonishing the world. It was about the year 1523 that France employed Verazani to go in quest of new discoveries. This navigator examined more than 600 leagues of the North American coast, but he founded no colonies. James Cartier, his successor, visited all the country called Kanata by the savages, that is to say, the mass of huts. He ascended the great river, which received from him the name of St. Lawrence, and advanced as far as the island of Montreal, which was then called Hochelaga. In 1540 M. de Roberval obtained the viceroyalty of Canada. He transported several families thither, with his brother, whom Francis I. distinguished by the appellation of Hannibal's gen d'arme, on account of his bravery; but being shipwrecked in 1540, "with them sunk," said Charlevoix, "all the hopes which had been conceived of forming an establishment in America, no one daring to flatter himself with the idea of being more skilful or fortunate than these two brave men." The disturbances, which soon afterwards began in France, and continued fifty years, prevented the attention of government to any events at a distance. The genius of Henry IV. having stifled civil discord, the project of founding a colony in Canada was resumed with ardour. The Marquis de la Roche embarked in 1598 to try his fortune again, but his expedition had a disastrous end. M. Chauvin succeeded to his projects and misfortunes, and *The Spaniards had certainly discovered Canada before James Cartier and Verazani. There are some who assert that the name of Canada is derived from two Spanish words Acca nada. |