many dreams and imaginations and he saw the opportunity of finding a
home under the prairie skies for his hapless countrymen. It requires no
detail here of how Lord Selkirk bought a controlling interest in the
Hudson's Bay Company's stock, made out his plans of Emigration, and took
steps to send out his hoped-for thousands or tens of thousands of
Highland crofters, or Irish peasants, whoever they might be, if they
sought freedom though bound up with hardship, hope instead of a pauper's
grave, the prospect of independence of life and station in the new world
instead of penury and misery under impossible conditions of life at
home. Nor is it a matter of moment to us, how the struggle began until
we have brought before our minds the stalwart figure of Sir Alexander
Mackenzie--Lord Selkirk's great protagonist. Like many a distinguished
man who has made his mark in the new world, and notably our great Lord
Strathcona, who came as a mere lad to Canada, Alexander Mackenzie, a
stripling of sixteen, arrived in Montreal to make his fortune. He was
born as the Scottish people say of "kenn't" of "well-to-do" folk in
Stornoway, in the Hebrides. He received a fair education and as a boy
had a liking for the sea. Two partners, Gregory and McLeod, were
fighting at Montreal in opposition to the dominant firm of McTavish and
Frobisher. Young Alexander Mackenzie joined this opposition. So great
was his aptitude, that boy as he was, he was despatched West to lead an
expedition to Detroit. Soon he was pushed on to be a bourgeois, and was
appointed at the age of twenty-two to go to the far West fur country of
Athabasca, the vast Northern country which was to be the area of his
discoveries and his fame. His energy and skill were amazing, although
like many of his class, he had to battle against the envy of rivals.
After completely planning his expedition, he made a dash for the Arctic
Sea, by way of Mackenzie River, which he--first of white men--descended,
and which bears his name. Finding his astronomical knowledge defective,
he took a year off, and in his native land learned the use of the