Voyages d'Alexandre Mackenzie dans l'intérieur de l'Amérique septentrionale, faits en 1789, 1792 et 1793; le 1er, de Montréal au fort Chipiouyan et à la mer Glaciale; le 2ème, du fort Chipiouyan jusqu'aux bords de l'océan Pacifique. Précédés d'un Tableau historique et politique sur le commerce des pelleteries, dans le Canada. Traduits de l'anglais, par J. Castéra, avec des notes et un itinéraire, tirés en partie des papiers du vice-amiral Bougainville

First edition of the French translation (cf. Sabin, 43416; Smith, Pacific Northwest Americana, 6381; Pilling, Bibl. of the Algonquian Languages, 327; Hoefer, XXXII, 566-567).

Illustrated with a portrait of the author after Sir Thomas Lawrence as frontispiece to the first volume and, at the end of each volume, three engraved maps showing the route from Fort Chipewyan to the Arctic Sea in 1789 and to the Pacific Ocean in 1793, together with the portion of North America lying between the 40th and 70th degrees north latitude and the 45th and 180th degrees west longitude.

Handsome half red shagreen bindings, flat spines ruled in gilt with quintuple fillets, traces of former labels at the head of each spine, minor rubbing to joints, red boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns; mid-19th-century bindings.

Repair to the half-title of volume I.

A pleasing copy of this major exploration narrative.

Born in Scotland but settled in Canada, Alexander MACKENZIE entered, in 1779, a Montréal fur-trading house.

In the spring of 1785, he was sent to Fort Chipewyan, west of Hudson Bay, to conduct the fur trade.

"Ce fut là pendant huit années environ le principal séjour de Mackenzie, qui ne s'en éloignait que pour aller traiter avec les tribus indigènes. La connaissance qu'il avait acquise du pays et des habitants, son intelligence et l'activité de son caractère engagèrent ses patrons à le mettre à la tête d'un voyage de découverte vers les régions boréales…" (Hoefer).

He left Fort Chipewyan on 3 June 1789, descended the Slave River to the lake of the same name, and reached another river which he followed. Being the first European to navigate this river, he named it Mackenzie’s River, and continued until he reached the Arctic Ocean on 15 July. In September he returned to Chipewyan.

He set out again on 10 October 1792 for a second expedition: ascending the Unjigah or Peace River, he crossed the Rocky Mountains in May 1793, then reached the Tacoutché-Tessé and made landfall on 23 July near Point Menzies on the Pacific Ocean. He thus became the first European to cross the North American continent. His account was published in London in 1801. The present edition, translated by Castéra, is preceded by a treatise on the fur trade, observations and a vocabulary of the Knisteneaux, Chipewyan and Algonquin languages; it concludes with meteorological observations and an itinerary by Vice-Admiral Bougainville.