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 instruments needed in exploration.