Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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MacKENZIEenzie, Sir Alexander 1755-1820

Explorer; born in Inverness. Scotland, about 1755; was early engaged in the fur-trade in Canada. He set out to explore the vast wilderness northward in June, 1789, having spent a year previously in England studying astronomy and navigation. At the western part of the Great Slave Lake he entered a river in an unexplored wilderness, and gave his name to it. Its course was followed until July 12, when his voyage was terminated by ice and he returned to his place of departure, Fort Chippewayan. He had reached lat. 69° 1′ N. In October, 1792, He crossed the continent to the Pacific Ocean, which he reached in July, 1793, in lat. 51° 21′ N. He returned, went to England, and published (1801) Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Lawrence, through the continent of North America, to the frozen and Pacific oceans, in the years 1789 and 1793, with excellent maps. He was knighted in 1802, and died in Dalhousie, Scotland, March 12, 1820.