Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/140

Mackenzie faith, MacKenna was conservative in his political views, and from 1793 was frequently employed to write on behalf of the government. Eager for catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform, he displayed great repugnance to the republican and separatist policy advocated by Wolfe Tone, and he strongly combated Wolfe Tone's views in a pamphlet of 1793, entitled ‘An Essay on Parliamentary Reform, and the Evils likely to ensue from a Republican Constitution in Ireland.’ MacKenna favoured the idea of a union with England, and was recommended by Thomas Lewis O'Beirne [q. v.], bishop of Meath, to Lord Castlereagh to write in its favour. A memoir of his on the project, published in 1799, bases its expected advantages on the necessity under which England, once the union was achieved, would be placed of fostering the prosperity of all her dominions as a counterpoise to France. Like the vast majority of Irishmen, MacKenna was bitterly disappointed when the union was followed by neither religious concessions nor political reforms. His later pamphlets therefore were devoted to calling the attention of the government to their broken pledges. In 1805 he published a very long tract, entitled ‘Thoughts on the Civil Condition and Relations of the Romish Clergy, Religion, and People in Ireland.’ In this he suggested to the government the advisability of raising the Irish catholic church to the dignity of an establishment by assuming the nomination of its bishops, and providing stipends for its clergy. His last pamphlet, ‘Views of the Catholic Question submitted to the good will of the People of England,’ denounced the continued refusal of justice to the Irish catholics, and commented upon the practice of maintaining exceptional legislation for Ireland, in distinction to other parts of the British Empire. MacKenna died in Dublin on 31 Dec. 1808.

 MACKENZIE,. [See, 1754–1816, .]

 MACKENZIE, ALEXANDER (1755?–1820), North American explorer, is believed to have been born at Inverness about 1765. According to his own account he entered in 1779 the counting-house of Messrs. Gregory & Co., Toronto, one of the partners in the North-west Fur Company, started in 1783 to oppose the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly. In 1784 he was sent by his employers to Detroit with a small venture of goods, on condition that he penetrated into the back settlements, or Indian territory, in the ensuing spring. He set out with some companions on this half trading, half exploring enterprise, but the European traders already established in those ports treated them as intruders, and stirred up the Indiana against them. After 'the severest struggle ever known in this part of the world,' during which one partner was murdered and several wounded, the intruders were admitted to a share in the trade in 1787.

Local knowledge and experience, gained by several years' residence at Fort Chippewayan, a trading post with the Chippewas, at the head of Lake Athabasca, in the Hudson's Bay territory, pointed Mackenzie out to his employers as a fit person to explore the then unknown region of the north-west, supposed to be bounded by the Frozen Sea. He set out from Fort Chippewayan with a small party of Canadians and Indians in birchbark canoes on 3 June 1789. The voyage, full of perils and difficulties, surmounted with indomitable pluck, skill, and perseverance, occupied 102 days. A week after leaving, the party reached the Great Slave Lake, which they found covered with insecure ice. Skirting the lake on 29 June, they discovered the outlet of the river, flowing from the lake to the north-westward, and since named the Mackenzie Elver. This they descended to the point where it enters the Arctic Sea, in lat. 69° N., which they reached on 15 July. Setting up a post with his name and date of visit, Mackenzie retraced his steps, arriving with his party at Fort Chippewayan on 12 Sept. 1789. After a period of hometrading, during which he improved his knowledge of surveying and nautical astronomy, he started again from Fort Chippewayan on 10 July 1792, with the object of reaching the Pacific coast, an enterprise never before attempted by any European. The journey proved yet more perilous and difficult than the preceding. After nine months of persevering travel, Mackenzie, the first white man who crossed the Rocky (or Chippewayan) Mountains, reached the Pacific coast near Cape Menzies, in lat. 62° 21' N., and long. 128° 12' W. Greenwich, on 22 June 1793. He inscribed on the face of a rock the date of his visit, a not unnecessary precaution, as he was nearly murdered by the natives when starting on his return journey the next day. He arrived at Fort Chippewayan on 23 Aug. 1793. Subsequently he appears to have devoted himself to the profitable pursuit of the fur trade, and to have amassed considerable means. He published in England in 1801 a 