First edition. Leaving Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabaska in 1789, Mackenzie set out for the Arctic Sea on the river now bearing his name, and returned the same year. In 1792, he again set out, this time for the Pacific. In both cases, unlike so many of the earlier and subsequent explorers, he was successful, despite the constant and seemingly insurmountable obstacles he encountered. This work was considered remarkable for its accuracy by the many explorers of the nineteenth century who followed Mackenzie's tracks. The recipient of this copy, David Reid, was Mackenzie's uncle, married to the author's aunt, and was Collector of Customs at Stornaway. It was in this position that Reid was able to cause a great many problems for Selkirk's would-be settlers of the Red River settlement, rivals of Mackenzie and the North West Company.

First edition. Leaving Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabaska in 1789, Mackenzie set out for the Arctic Sea on the river now bearing his name, and returned the same year. In 1792, he again set out, this time for the Pacific. In both cases, unlike so many of the earlier and subsequent explorers, he was successful, despite the constant and seemingly insurmountable obstacles he encountered. This work was considered remarkable for its accuracy by the many explorers of the nineteenth century who followed Mackenzie's tracks. The recipient of this copy, David Reid, was Mackenzie's uncle, married to the author's aunt, and was Collector of Customs at Stornaway. It was in this position that Reid was able to cause a great many problems for Selkirk's would-be settlers of the Red River settlement, rivals of Mackenzie and the North West Company.

The "first and finest edition of the earliest expedition made by a white man in this direction. His investigations, although pursued at so early a period of Arctic exploration, were remarkable for their accuracy; Sir John Franklin more than once expressed his surprise at being able to corroborate their correctness in his own explorations" (Sabin). Mackenzie's account of the "Rise, Progress, and Present State of Fur Trade" is the first printed. The three maps, some of the earliest of this area, include: "A Map of America. exhibiting Mackenzie's track from Montreal to Fort Chipewyan & from thence to the North Sea in 1789 & to the West Pacific Ocean in 1793", "A Map of Mackenzie's Track from Fort Chipewyan to the North Sea, in 1789", "A Map of Mackenzie's Track from Fort Chipewyan to the Pacific Ocean in 1795".

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