# Sir Alexander Mackenzie — Journals character guide

> Sir Alexander Mackenzie in Journals by Alexander Mackenzie.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Alexander Mackenzie, Mackenzie

**First appearance:** 0002-journals

## Snapshot

The fur trader who embarks from Fort Chipewyan in a birch-bark canoe, bound for the frozen and Pacific oceans with a crew of voyageurs and one wary English Chief.

## Who they are

He launches on June 3, 1789, with four Canadians, a German, two wives, and an Indigenous leader whose loyalty to a rival company makes him both indispensable and uncertain. Every league is logged — twenty-one miles west, nine north-northwest — as if precision could tame the river's shifting currents and the crew's competing appetites. His journals matter because they turn a commercial gamble into a document of endurance, where trade goods, pemmican, and observation are all weighed in the same ledger.

## Relationships

### [The Indians](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/journals_se/characters/the_indians)

_professional_

Sir Alexander Mackenzie is a famous explorer whose prior interactions with the Indians are noted by the narrator.

## In the story

### [Journals To the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in 1789 and 1793](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/journals_se/chapters/journals)

Central figure leading both expeditions to the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.

### [To the Frozen Ocean in 1789](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/journals_se/chapters/to-the-frozen-ocean-in-1789)

Leader of the expedition to the Arctic Ocean.

### [To the Pacific Ocean in 1793](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/journals_se/chapters/to-the-pacific-ocean-in-1793)

Leader of the expedition to the Pacific Ocean in 1793.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/journals_se/chapters/i)

The narrator and leader of the expedition, making preparations and directing the journey up the Peace River.

### [Chapter XII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/journals_se/chapters/xii)

Mackenzie is the leader of the expedition, referenced as the narrator's identity in the context of the journey.

### [Chapter XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/journals_se/chapters/xiii)

Referenced as the author of the voyages and the one who received the reward of his labors.

### [Endnotes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/journals_se/chapters/endnotes)

Referenced in the endnotes as the author of the voyage and the one who named Mackenzie's Outlet.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/journals_se/characters/sir_alexander_mackenzie
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/journals_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/journals_se/characters