Gratification of perusing the orders to
their agents and servants in North America, containing the fullest
directions to promote by every means the progress of the Expedition. I
most cheerfully avail myself of this opportunity of expressing my
gratitude to these gentlemen for their personal kindness to myself and
the other officers, as well as for the benefits rendered by them to the
Expedition; and the same sentiment is due towards the Gentlemen of the
North-West Company, both in England and America, more particularly to
Simon McGillivray, Esquire, of London, from whom I received much useful
information and cordial letters of recommendation to the partners and
agents of that Company resident on our line of route.
A short time before I left London I had the pleasure and advantage of an
interview with the late Sir Alexander Mackenzie who was one of the two
persons who had visited the coast we were to explore. He afforded me, in
the most open and kind manner, much valuable information and advice.
The provisions, instruments, and other articles, of which I had furnished
a list by direction of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, were
embarked on board the Hudson's Bay Company's ship Prince of Wales,
appointed by the Committee to convey the Expedition to York Factory,
their principal establishment in Hudson's Bay.
