Chapter 30

Exploration

Exploration and discovery of unknown lands, seas and peoples; voyages undertaken to explore; the explorer's motives, methods and hardships; first accounts of new places.

381 passages · 203 principal · Covers the 49 volumes of primary texts

Exploration, as the term is used here, covers the going out into unknown lands, seas and peoples. It includes the voyages undertaken for that purpose, the motives that send men out, the methods by which they find their way, the hardships that turn them back, and the first reports they bring home. In most collections of great books the idea would appear only at the margins, in an epic wandering or a philosopher’s aside. The Harvard Classics give it unusual weight. They print the founding documents of the age of discovery: the Norse sagas of Vinland, Columbus’s letter, Vespucci’s account, the records of Cabot, Gilbert, Drake and Raleigh. Beside these stand Darwin’s survey voyage and a long line of poets who made the voyage a figure for thought and death. The idea therefore lets us watch, in the explorers’ own words, the European world finding out how large the world was, and then watch philosophers and poets deciding what that discovery meant.

The first question these texts raise is why men go. The bluntest answer is gold. Adam Smith reports that the Spaniards, on reaching any unknown coast, asked first whether it held gold or silver, and decided by the answer whether to settle or conquer^1,2. Raleigh is hardly less frank. He argues that the unexplored interior of Guiana must hold more gold than the coastal Indies, and he offers the empire he found as a treasury to rival Spain’s^3,4. Harrison records Frobisher’s search for a short cut to Cathay, which ended in ore that proved to be dross⁵, and English merchants reaching toward Muscovy and the Indies for commodities⁶. Even Drayton’s ode sends Britons to Virginia for pearl and gold as well as fame⁷.

Against this stands a second motive, the desire to see. Vespucci says he left trade to behold the wonders of the world⁸. More’s Hythloday gives up his patrimony for the same reason⁹, and Sindbad sails from longing to see other countries and races¹⁰. Its purest form is Dante’s Ulysses, who abandons home to gain experience of the world and of human vice and virtue, and drives past Hercules’ limits into the unpeopled hemisphere^11,12. Tennyson’s Ulysses inherits that hungry heart and resolves to sail beyond the sunset until he dies^13,14. Bacon’s New Atlantis turns curiosity into an institution: its ships sail abroad every twelve years for light, not gold or spices¹⁵. Darwin confesses the simpler wish to stand where no man has stood¹⁶. Pascal punctures the whole motive. Men would not cross the sea merely to see, he says, if they could never tell of it, so curiosity is a form of vanity¹⁷.

A third family of motives joins religion, glory and right. Edward Haies sets ambition and avarice against the virtuous aim of Christianizing, and he insists that conversion is the proper end of discovery^18,19. In the same narrative he argues England’s priority of discovery through Cabot against Spanish and French claims²⁰. Columbus closes his letter with glory and conversion²¹. The Mayflower settlers sail for God’s glory and their king²², and Whitman’s Columbus prays that his voyages were undertaken for God²³.

Smith complicates all of this. He holds that neither utility nor profit, rightly understood, produced the American colonies. What happened was that a project for East Indian commerce stumbled on the West, and the hopes of an Eldorado that followed were disappointed^24,25. Thoreau gives the question a different turn. He asks why America was discovered and answers that the race has a westward migratory instinct. The ancients dreamed that instinct as Atlantis and the Hesperides, and Columbus obeyed it^26,27. Whitman likewise treats the opening of the western continent as a theme of greater dignity than any antique one^28,29.

The ancient texts show a world whose edges are close and fearful. Smith explains that the ancients hugged the Mediterranean coasts for want of the compass, so that passing the Pillars of Hercules was a perilous exploit³⁰. Tacitus says the northern ocean is little known and that its dangers deter ships³¹. Drusus tried that ocean and was turned back by its roughness³². Plutarch credits Caesar with being the first to bring a fleet into the Atlantic, reaching an island whose very existence historians had doubted³³. Herodotus is the true ancestor of the explorer’s report. He pursues the sources of the Nile as far as Elephantine, collects hearsay of the route beyond^34,35, and tells of Nasamonian youths chosen by lot to cross the Libyan desert, who found small dark men in a city by a river^36,37. The moderns judged the ancients by what they had missed. Raleigh notes that voyages through the torrid zone refuted the belief of Aristotle, Pliny and Strabo that it was uninhabitable³⁸. Bacon’s fable, by contrast, claims that ancient navigation exceeded the modern and later decayed^39,40.

Legend fills what history leaves blank. Prometheus charts Io’s route across the Scythian plains to Gorgons, Gryphons and the sources of the Nile^41,42,43. Odysseus comes upon the unpeopled isle near the Cyclopes⁴⁴, and Circe gives him sailing directions past the Wandering Rocks, which only the Argo had ever passed⁴⁵. Aeneas wanders for seven years in search of a land he cannot name^46,47. Tacitus records, without vouching for it, a tradition that Ulysses reached Germany⁴⁸. Between legend and history lie the Celtic voyages. Renan describes Irish monks who landed in Iceland before the Danes, and St. Brandan’s seven years in a leather boat^49,50,51.

The Norse saga marks the passage from wonder to record. Biarni sights unknown wooded lands and is reproached for not landing, and Leif buys his ship and names the countries he finds^52,53. Leif’s men explore in daily shifts, and the discovery of grapes gives Wineland its name⁵⁴. Columbus’s letter supplies the pattern for every first account that follows: coasting, naming, claiming, and describing harbors, mountains and timid natives^55,56,57. Vespucci adds a stated intention to write a geography of the wonders seen⁵⁸. Smith retells the episode with a skeptic’s eye. Columbus expected the rich Indies, found naked savages in wooded country, and turned to gold to justify his discovery^59,60. Voltaire counts the discovery among achievements of chance and practice, made without theoretical knowledge of navigation^61,62. Emerson notes the irony that the continent took Vespucci’s name instead of Columbus’s⁶³. The English records are more anxious. Haies laments that England had left the inland country unexplored and relied on French reports⁶⁴, and he judges Gilbert’s venture rash, lacking both a chosen site and a proven commodity⁶⁵. Pretty’s narrative of Drake is the most continuous record of a circumnavigation, running from the Strait of Magellan to Java^66,67. Along the way Drake finds the Chilean charts wrong⁶⁸, and at the Cape he finds the Portuguese tales of its storms false⁶⁹.

Method grows in these texts from improvisation toward discipline. The early explorers sound channels with pinnaces⁷⁰, send small boats ahead to try river mouths⁷¹, and leave marks in harbors for the ships that follow⁷². Above all they depend on native knowledge. Drake crosses the isthmus behind Cimaroon guides who mark the way with broken boughs⁷³. Raleigh’s narrative is largely a record of intelligence gathered from elders, interpreters, prisoners and pilots, some of them seized by force^74,75,76,77. Raleigh states plainly that without such knowledge there is no entrance into the country⁷⁴. Scouting from a height recurs from epic to science. Odysseus climbs to look for smoke on Circe’s isle⁷⁸, Sindbad climbs a tree on his deserted island⁷⁹, and Drake climbs a tree to see the Pacific for the first time⁸⁰. Darwin ascends the Sierra Ventana, which no foreigner had climbed⁸¹. The Beagle’s purpose was itself methodical: survey and chronometric measurement^82,83. Bacon had already advised travellers to keep diaries, as sailors keep logs⁸⁴. Geikie draws the conclusion. Geography has outgrown travellers’ tales, and explorers must now go equipped with instruments and be judged by what they add to knowledge, not merely by their courage^85,86,87.

The hardships are the most constant theme of all. Gilbert loses the Delight, and with it the scholar who was to record the discovery⁸⁸. His own frigate goes down after his cry that he was as near to heaven by sea as by land⁸⁹. Raleigh’s history of Guiana is largely a chronicle of failure. Orellana, Orsua, Aguirre and Berreo all suffer famine, mutiny, disease and floods^90,91,92, and Raleigh’s own men nearly despair rowing against the current^93,94. Darwin endures twenty-four days of gales off the outer coast⁹⁵ and turns back upriver short of the Cordillera⁹⁶. Emerson admires the Admiralty’s persistence in sending expedition after expedition in search of Franklin⁹⁷. Yet Darwin also tempers the legend. He finds the dangers less than anticipated, the privations of Cook’s era gone, and the voyage itself a school in patience and trust in strangers^98,99.

The first accounts raise a question of credibility. Columbus reports, almost with disappointment, that he found no monsters¹⁰⁰. Hythloday says that sensible travellers seek knowledge of foreign laws, not monsters¹⁰¹. Raleigh relays native reports of headless men and defends such tales by pointing out that Mandeville’s stories had been confirmed once the East Indies were reached¹⁰². Darwin, three centuries later, explains old voyagers’ marvels by natural history¹⁰³, and his own discovery of island-specific species in the Galapagos is the decisive first account of the collection¹⁰⁴. The encounter with peoples is told from both sides. Natives wonder at the strangers: Columbus is thought to come from heaven¹⁰⁵, cannon astonish Vespucci’s hosts⁵⁸, and Drake’s Californians receive him with reverence¹⁰⁶. Darwin’s Fuegians, by contrast, strike him as scarcely human¹⁰⁷. Descartes draws a philosophical moral from such meetings. Distant peoples are not barbarians but often reason as well as Europeans, which weakens confidence in custom¹⁰⁸.

What discovery did to the discovered is judged harshly in the later texts. Smith describes natives indifferent to gold and astonished at the Spaniards’ rage for it¹⁰⁹, and he names the injustice suffered by newly found peoples¹¹⁰. Darwin records disease arriving with ships and native populations declining after first contact^111,112. Dana says flatly that the first discoverer of each South Sea island was its curse¹¹³.

Finally, the voyage becomes a figure. Hamlet’s “undiscovered country” and Mortimer’s traveller to lands unknown both make exploration an image of death^114,115. Milton’s Satan crosses Chaos like an explorer in uncharted waste and sights the new world as a scout sights a foreign city at dawn^116,117. Dante warns readers back from his uncharted sea¹¹⁸. Bacon likens his new method to the compass that alone made the New World reachable¹¹⁹, and Voltaire compares Descartes to the discoverer of a new tract that others will cultivate¹²⁰. Some turn the figure inward. Browne holds that the wonders sought abroad lie within man¹²¹, and Thoreau claims that the Nature he walks in was never discovered by Columbus¹²². Hunt counters that America itself was enriched when Humboldt brought back his account of it¹²³.

The texts thus leave several questions open. One is whether the worthiest motive is gain, faith or knowledge. Another is whether the age of first glimpses has given way, as Geikie and Darwin suggest, to patient survey. A third is whether the outward voyage is finally a model for the inward one or a distraction from it.

Passages cited (123)

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 311read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 401read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 303read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 308read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan England, Vol. 35, p. 320–321read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan England, Vol. 35, p. 224–225read · scan
Michael Drayton, Agincourt; To the Virginian Voyage; Love's Farewell, Vol. 40, p. 225–228read · scan
Amerigo Vespucci, Amerigo Vespucci's Account of His First Voyage, Vol. 43, p. 28read · scan
Sir Thomas More, Utopia, Vol. 36, p. 137read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 16, p. 260read · scan
Dante Alighieri, Hell, Vol. 20, p. 106read · scan
Dante Alighieri, Hell, Vol. 20, p. 106–110read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poems, Vol. 42, p. 976–977read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poems, Vol. 42, p. 977–979read · scan
Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis, Vol. 3, p. 161–162read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 286read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Thoughts, Vol. 48, p. 60–61read · scan
Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland, Vol. 33, p. 264–265read · scan
Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland, Vol. 33, p. 264read · scan
Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland, Vol. 33, p. 266read · scan
Christopher Columbus, The Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery, Vol. 43, p. 25–27read · scan
The Mayflower Compact, Vol. 43, p. 59read · scan
Walt Whitman, Poems, Vol. 42, p. 1420–1421read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 395–397read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 403read · scan
Henry David Thoreau, Walking, Vol. 28, p. 404–405read · scan
Henry David Thoreau, Walking, Vol. 28, p. 407–408read · scan
Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass, Vol. 39, p. 389–390read · scan
Walt Whitman, Poems, Vol. 42, p. 1404–1406read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 23–24read · scan
Tacitus, Germany, Vol. 33, p. 93read · scan
Tacitus, Germany, Vol. 33, p. 111–112read · scan
Plutarch, Caesar, Vol. 12, p. 283read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of Egypt, Vol. 33, p. 17–18read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of Egypt, Vol. 33, p. 18read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of Egypt, Vol. 33, p. 18–20read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of Egypt, Vol. 33, p. 20read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the World, Vol. 39, p. 104–106read · scan
Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis, Vol. 3, p. 156read · scan
Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis, Vol. 3, p. 158–159read · scan
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, Vol. 8, p. 191–192read · scan
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, Vol. 8, p. 193–195read · scan
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, Vol. 8, p. 195–196read · scan
Homer, The Odyssey, Vol. 22, p. 117–118read · scan
Homer, The Odyssey, Vol. 22, p. 163read · scan
Virgil, The Aeneid, Vol. 13, p. 128read · scan
Virgil, The Aeneid, Vol. 13, p. 197read · scan
Tacitus, Germany, Vol. 33, p. 94read · scan
Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic Races, Vol. 32, p. 174read · scan
Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic Races, Vol. 32, p. 175read · scan
Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic Races, Vol. 32, p. 176read · scan
The Voyages to Vinland, Vol. 43, p. 6read · scan
The Voyages to Vinland, Vol. 43, p. 6–8read · scan
The Voyages to Vinland, Vol. 43, p. 8–10read · scan
Christopher Columbus, The Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery, Vol. 43, p. 21read · scan
Christopher Columbus, The Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery, Vol. 43, p. 22read · scan
Christopher Columbus, The Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery, Vol. 43, p. 23read · scan
Amerigo Vespucci, Amerigo Vespucci's Account of His First Voyage, Vol. 43, p. 28read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 398–399read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 400–401read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the English, Vol. 34, p. 99–100read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the English, Vol. 34, p. 157–158read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Vol. 5, p. 391–392read · scan
Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland, Vol. 33, p. 263read · scan
Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland, Vol. 33, p. 297–298read · scan
Francis Pretty, Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World, Vol. 33, p. 206read · scan
Francis Pretty, Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World, Vol. 33, p. 223read · scan
Francis Pretty, Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World, Vol. 33, p. 207–208read · scan
Francis Pretty, Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World, Vol. 33, p. 223–224read · scan
Sir Francis Drake, Sir Francis Drake Revived, Vol. 33, p. 153–154read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 336read · scan
Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland, Vol. 33, p. 272–273read · scan
Sir Francis Drake, Sir Francis Drake Revived, Vol. 33, p. 169–170read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 329–330read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 338read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 345read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 354read · scan
Homer, The Odyssey, Vol. 22, p. 132–133read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 16, p. 243read · scan
Sir Francis Drake, Sir Francis Drake Revived, Vol. 33, p. 170–171read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 112–113read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 11read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 278–279read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, Vol. 3, p. 45–46read · scan
Sir Archibald Geikie, Geographical Evolution, Vol. 30, p. 325read · scan
Sir Archibald Geikie, Geographical Evolution, Vol. 30, p. 326read · scan
Sir Archibald Geikie, Geographical Evolution, Vol. 30, p. 327read · scan
Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland, Vol. 33, p. 289read · scan
Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland, Vol. 33, p. 295–296read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 322read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 327–329read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 377read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 341read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 342read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 221read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 192–193read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Vol. 5, p. 360–361read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 509read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 503–504read · scan
Christopher Columbus, The Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery, Vol. 43, p. 23read · scan
Sir Thomas More, Utopia, Vol. 36, p. 137–139read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 359read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 104–105read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 398–399read · scan
Christopher Columbus, The Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery, Vol. 43, p. 22–23read · scan
Francis Pretty, Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World, Vol. 33, p. 213read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 217read · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the Sciences, Vol. 34, p. 15–16read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 177read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 327–328read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 438–439read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 439read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, Vol. 23, p. 241–242read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Vol. 46, p. 143–144read · scan
Christopher Marlowe, Edward the Second, Vol. 46, p. 87read · scan
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Vol. 4, p. 129read · scan
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Vol. 4, p. 136read · scan
Dante Alighieri, Paradise, Vol. 20, p. 289read · scan
Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio Magna, Vol. 39, p. 126read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the English, Vol. 34, p. 111–112read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Vol. 3, p. 265–266read · scan
Henry David Thoreau, Walking, Vol. 28, p. 400–401read · scan
Leigh Hunt, On the Realities of Imagination, Vol. 27, p. 294read · scan

Introductory essay written by Claude Opus 5.5 from the outline and the notes on every passage below; quotations are checked against this edition.

1The motives for exploring
2Ancient and legendary voyages and geography
3The great voyages of discovery
4Methods of exploring
5Hardships and perils of exploration
1. 5aStorms, uncharted seas and shipwreck
2. 5bFlood, famine, sickness and failed expeditions
6First accounts of newly found lands and peoples

1.The motives for exploring

1a.Gold, trade and national profit

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 224–225Notes English merchants, no longer content with nearby trade, seeking out the East and West Indies, Cathay, Muscovy and Tartary; motive is commodities, though prices didn't fall.read · scan
p. 320–321Frobisher sought a northern short cut to Cathay, found islands with apparent gold (dross), abandoned the enterprise; Drake's West Indies success; motives of gold and gain.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 303Argues the unexplored interior of Guiana holds more gold than the coastal Indies, which are easily raided; a motive for exploring inland.read · scan
p. 308Presents the empire he discovered as a source of treasure to rival Spain; motive of national profit behind exploration.read · scan
p. 317–318Raleigh reports secondhand the location and fabled riches of Guiana and Manoa (El Dorado), the lure motivating exploration, though mostly quoting Lopez on Inca wealth.read · scan
p. 332Rival Spanish patents to discover and conquer Guiana, motivated by gold and the El Dorado legend; Spaniards sent to discover Manoa, guided by native lords.read · scan

Michael Drayton, Agincourt; To the Virginian Voyage; Love's FarewellVol. 40

p. 225–228Drayton's ode urging Britons to sail to Virginia: motives of pearl, gold and fame, a fertile paradise, a course west-southwest, and Hakluyt's voyage narratives inspiring adventurers.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 173–174Peruvian law encourages discovery of new mines with grants of claims to discoverers; prospecting is seen as a risky lottery for adventurers.read · scan
p. 201Search for new mines is uncertain and widening; discovery of new deposits is a matter of chance no skill can ensure, and America's mines are cited.read · scan
p. 311Explorers' motive: on reaching any unknown coast after the discovery of America, Spaniards first asked about gold and silver to decide on settling or conquering.read · scan
p. 395–397Says neither utility nor profit motivated the discoveries that led to American colonies; the Venetian spice trade is the background that prompted later searches.read · scan
p. 401Gold-thirst motivated the Spanish explorers (Ojeda, Balboa, Cortez, Pizarro); on reaching unknown coasts they first asked about gold, plundering natives.read · scan
p. 403Explains motives of discovery: an East Indies commerce project led to finding the West; hopes of Eldorado and gold, and English settlers' search for a north-west passage, were disappointed.read · scan

1b.Curiosity and the desire to see the world

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 243Sindibad longs to see the countries and islands of the world; motive of curiosity, then landing on an uninhabited island and being abandoned.read · scan
p. 260Sindbad's motive for voyaging: longing to see other countries and races, followed by shipwreck and landing on an unknown island.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20

p. 106Ulysses recounts abandoning home to explore the world and human vice and virtue, sailing the unbounded ocean past Hercules' limits with one ship and a small band.read · scan

Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36

p. 137Raphael Hythloday left his patrimony from desire to see far countries, sailed with Vespucci on voyages, stayed behind in Gulike, and travelled on to Taprobane: explorer's motive and hardship.read · scan

Francis Bacon, The New AtlantisVol. 3

p. 161–162Every twelve years two ships carry Salomon's House fellows abroad secretly to gather knowledge, books and inventions of other lands; voyages for light, not gold or spices.read · scan

René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34

p. 7–8Descartes compares reading the past to travel, noting that knowing other nations' manners corrects parochial judgment, yet that too much travelling makes one a stranger at home.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48

p. 60–61Pascal says curiosity is vanity: men would not take a sea voyage merely to see things without ever telling of it, an account of the motive for travelling to see.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25

p. 10Mill recalls boyhood reading of Anson's Voyages, Voyages Round the World from Drake to Cook and Bougainville, and the first settlement of New South Wales, accounts of explorers struggling against difficulties.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 286Explorer's motives: desire to stand where no man has stood, to find traces of earlier visitors; a new harbour discovered on the unfrequented coast.read · scan

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42

p. 976–977Tennyson's Ulysses, restless with a hungry heart, resolves to sail again beyond known bounds, seeking knowledge and new experience; the explorer's motive of unquenchable curiosity.read · scan
p. 977–979Ulysses urges his mariners to seek a newer world and sail beyond the sunset until death, risking the gulfs; explorer's resolve to strive, seek, find.read · scan

1c.Religion, glory and claims of right

Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to NewfoundlandVol. 33

p. 264–265Examines explorers' motives: ambition and avarice versus a virtuous aim of Christianizing; compares Columbus, the Cabots and Spanish discoveries, and the perils of sea and land.read · scan
p. 266Argues English priority of discovery along North America via Cabot against Spanish and French claims; ties exploration to claims of right and a religious motive for planting.read · scan
p. 278Gilbert announces commission to take possession of lands for England and Christianity; fleet resupplied at St. John's in a desolate corner of the world.read · scan

Walt Whitman, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1420–1421Columbus's prayer: voyages undertaken for God, joining hemispheres and turning the unknown into the known; ending with the voyage balked and ships yielded.read · scan

1d.The westward impulse and the ends of discovery

Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36

p. 241Seeks the latitude and longitude of Utopia; notes that lands unknown to old geographers have been newly found, explaining the island's absent name.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3

p. 91–92Quotes Seneca's prophecy that ocean's bonds will loosen and a new Tiphys disclose new worlds beyond Thule, read as foretelling the discovery of America.read · scan

Henry David Thoreau, WalkingVol. 28

p. 404–405Westward migratory urge of the race; Atlantis and Hesperides as the ancients' mythic West; Columbus obeying that impulse and finding a New World.read · scan
p. 407–408Asks why America was discovered; sees westward empire and the backwoodsman's frontier as the purpose and fruit of discovery; Scandinavians taking to sea.read · scan

Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of GrassVol. 39

p. 389–390Invokes the discovery and opening of the western continent as an event of greater dignity than antique or medieval themes, a worthy subject for American poets.read · scan

Walt Whitman, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1404–1406Whitman's pioneers push into unknown ways, felling forests, crossing mountains and surveying virgin land; hardships and drive of westward frontier settlement and exploration.read · scan

2.Ancient and legendary voyages and geography

2a.Ancient navigation and the limits of the known world

Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33

p. 93Tacitus notes the northern ocean and its islands are little known, that recent war revealed new nations, and that ocean dangers deter ships from entering unknown seas.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 473Canon mocks chivalric tales for implausible geography, where a knight wakes in Prester John's land or regions never charted by Ptolemy or Marco Polo; touches on unknown lands only as satire.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39

p. 104–106Notes that experience of navigating the equatorial seas and finding the torrid zone populated and temperate refutes the ancients (Aristotle, Pliny, Strabo) who held it uninhabitable and unnavigable.read · scan

Francis Bacon, The New AtlantisVol. 3

p. 155Notes that despite the remote discoveries and navigations of the age, Europe never heard of this hidden island, which itself knows the world; reflects on mutual knowledge through voyaging.read · scan
p. 156Governor recounts that ancient navigation of remote voyages (Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Egyptians, China, America) exceeded that of the present day, framing the history of long-distance seafaring.read · scan
p. 157Describes ancient far voyages of the island's ships to the Pillars of Hercules, Cathay and East Tartary, and Atlantic and South Sea expeditions by American kingdoms.read · scan
p. 158–159Explains decay of long-distance navigation and lost commerce with America; the island's ships remain capable, yet sit at home, prompting account of why.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 23–24Ancient navigation hugged Mediterranean coasts from ignorance of the compass; passing the Pillars of Hercules was a dangerous exploit, attempted late by Phoenicians and Carthaginians.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 456–457Stukeley's theory that Phoenician mariners kept the compass secret and that Jason's expedition for the golden fleece sought a loadstone; gives a speculative motive for early maritime voyages and Britain as a Phoenician secret.read · scan

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, The TidesVol. 30

p. 279Ancient Greek explorers (Posidonius, Strabo) reported tides in remote Thule, Britain, Gaul and Spain; Caesar's expeditionary landing in Britain met unfamiliar ocean tides unprepared.read · scan

2b.Mythic itineraries and wandering heroes

Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22

p. 26–27Telemachus plans a voyage to Sparta and Pylos to seek news of his father; a voyage of inquiry, though to known places.read · scan
p. 54–55Menelaus recounts being held at Pharos off Egypt, becalmed and starving, with his men roaming the isle; hardships of a far voyage.read · scan
p. 117–118First account of the Cyclopes' land: lawless unploughed people, an unpeopled fertile isle with a fine harbour, reached by night in mist, with no known settlers.read · scan
p. 132–133Odysseus meets the man-eating Laestrygons, then lands on Circe's isle and climbs a height to scout for signs of people and smoke.read · scan
p. 163Circe's sailing directions through unknown perils: the Sirens, the Wandering Rocks, and the Argo as the one ship ever to pass.read · scan

Aeschylus, Prometheus BoundVol. 8

p. 191–192Prometheus charts Io's route through remote lands (Scythian plains, Chalybes, Caucasus, Amazons), a legendary geography of peoples and dangers along the way, though framed as a mythic itinerary.read · scan
p. 193–195Prometheus describes the far edge of the known world: Gorgons, Gryphons, Arimaspians, with warnings of hazards for a traveller crossing unknown lands.read · scan
p. 195–196Continues Io's itinerary to the Nile sources and Ethiopia; editorial note discusses legendary geography of East and West beyond the known world.read · scan

Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13

p. 73Argument and opening of the Aeneid: Trojans' seven years' wandering voyage, and Aeneas going out to discover the African country where the storm drove him; mostly fated wandering, not exploration.read · scan
p. 128Argument and opening of Aeneas's voyage seeking an unknown destined homeland, uncertain of the place, landing in Thrace and being cast on several shores.read · scan
p. 131Anchises urges exploring the land Heaven appoints; fleet sails past the Cyclades to Crete, seeking a destined settlement, rumored free of enemies.read · scan
p. 137Helenus prophesies the dangers and long sea route to Italy, advising how to shun perils of the main on the voyage of settlement.read · scan
p. 197Trojan matrons lament seven years of wandering from shore to shore in fruitless search for Italy, voicing the hardships and exhaustion of a long seaborne quest.read · scan

Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33

p. 94Tradition that Ulysses, wandering on long voyages, reached the ocean and Germany and founded Asciburgium; Tacitus leaves such legendary exploration unverified.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20

p. 106Ulysses recounts abandoning home to explore the world and human vice and virtue, sailing the unbounded ocean past Hercules' limits with one ship and a small band.read · scan
p. 106–110Ulysses urges his aging crew to pursue knowledge by sailing beyond the known world into the unpeopled southern hemisphere; they sight a new land and perish in a whirlwind.read · scan

2c.Explorers sent into unknown lands

Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33

p. 17–18Herodotus inquires into the unknown sources of the Nile, reports the scribe's doubtful tale, and travels to Elephantine, then gathers report of the upriver route and its hazards.read · scan
p. 18Describes the route beyond Elephantine by river and land, with reefs, portages and stages to Meroe, reported from hearsay as first account of Ethiopian regions.read · scan
p. 18–20Nile known only four months' journey up; Nasamonian young men are chosen by lot to explore the Libyan desert beyond earlier explorers.read · scan
p. 20The Nasamonian explorers cross beasts' country and desert, meet small men and a black-skinned city on a river, a first account of unknown peoples.read · scan
p. 27Herodotus voyages to Tyre to inquire about Heracles' temple, a fact-finding journey, though it is not exploration of unknown lands.read · scan
p. 48–50Sesostris sails from the Arabian gulf until shoals stop navigation, then marches conquering far lands; mostly conquest, with some extension of known world.read · scan
p. 78–79Necos begins the canal linking the Nile to the Erythraian Sea and builds fleets for both seas, at great cost of life; this is an engineering venture rather than a voyage of discovery.read · scan

Plutarch, CaesarVol. 12

p. 283Caesar's invasion of Britain: first to bring a fleet into the Atlantic, reaching an island whose existence historians doubted, extending Roman power beyond the known world.read · scan

Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33

p. 111–112Romans ventured into the northern ocean; Drusus tried to explore it but the ocean's roughness blocked discovery, and the enterprise was dropped; Pillars of Hercules rumour.read · scan

3.The great voyages of discovery

3a.Norse and Celtic voyages to the west

The Voyages to VinlandVol. 43

p. 6Biarni, sailing blind to Greenland, is driven off course by fog and sights unknown wooded lands, the first European glimpse of the new continent.read · scan
p. 6–8Biarni sights further unknown lands without landing, is reproached for lacking enterprise; Leif then buys his ship and names Helluland, sailing to lands Biarni had seen.read · scan
p. 8Leif names Markland, finds sweet dew, rich salmon rivers and mild winters, and plans exploration of the country from a base house.read · scan
p. 8–10Leif's parties explore the land in daily shifts; Tyrker finds vines and grapes, giving Wineland its name and first account of its products.read · scan
p. 10Thorvald holds that Wineland had not been sufficiently explored, prompting a second voyage; talk of Leif's discovery spreads.read · scan
p. 11Thorvald explores the Wineland coast, finding fair wooded country, sands, islands, a grain shed, naming Keelness, and first meeting natives in canoes.read · scan
p. 14Karlsefni leads a settling expedition to Wineland, gathering its products and first encountering Skrellings, natives who trade furs, with no shared language.read · scan
p. 14Clash with the native Skrellings in Wineland ends contact; the party leaves with booty of grapes and furs.read · scan
p. 17Wineland voyages are reckoned profitable and honorable enterprises, motivating further expeditions.read · scan
p. 17–19Return from Vinland with cargo of the land's products; Karlsefni sells Wineland 'mosur' wood, but mostly a tale of Freydis's murders rather than exploration.read · scan
p. 20Closing note that Karlsefni gave the most exact accounts of the Vinland voyages; mostly genealogy of his descendants.read · scan

Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic RacesVol. 32

p. 142–143Celtic poetic life defined as adventure, the pursuit of the unknown; Brandan's quest and envoys scouring the world show the explorer's impulse.read · scan
p. 174Irish monks' sea voyages in search of unknown isles: landing in Iceland in 795 ahead of the Danes, Northern islands, and a western land Columbus later discovered.read · scan
p. 175St. Brandan's seven-year voyage by leather boat in quest of a mysterious land; describes marvellous islands encountered, a legendary account of exploring the seas.read · scan
p. 176Celtic desire to penetrate the unknown beyond the sea; St. Brandan's Polar voyage accounts of ice, Iceland, fiords and whales; dream of a Promised Land.read · scan

3b.Columbus, Vespucci and the Portuguese

Christopher Columbus, The Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant Angel Announcing His DiscoveryVol. 43

p. 21Columbus announces discovery of many inhabited islands, naming and claiming them, and sending men inland to seek cities or a king on Juana.read · scan
p. 22Columbus describes coasting Juana and Hispaniola, their harbors, rivers, mountains, flora, minerals and timid inhabitants: a first account of newly reached lands.read · scan
p. 22–23Columbus recounts first contacts with natives, their fear and generosity, barter, their belief he came from heaven, and seizing natives for information.read · scan
p. 23Describes native canoes, uniformity of peoples, measures island sizes by coasting them, and takes possession for the Spanish sovereigns.read · scan
p. 23Columbus founds Navidad, reports native customs, appearance and climate, and notes finding no monsters as expected.read · scan
p. 25Reports hearsay of cannibals, Amazons and gold islands, promises riches, and notes that once-doubted lands were proved by the voyage.read · scan
p. 25–27Columbus closes by praising the discovery's glory, conversion of peoples and benefits, and mentions storms on the return voyage.read · scan

Amerigo Vespucci, Amerigo Vespucci's Account of His First VoyageVol. 43

p. 28Vespucci introduces his four voyages of discovery of new lands for Castile and Portugal, reporting things unknown to ancient writers.read · scan
p. 28Vespucci's motive for leaving trade to see the world's wonders; 1497 voyage discovered continental land and islands unknown to ancients.read · scan
p. 28Sailing west from the Canaries, they reach a supposed continent, observe shy naked natives, seek harbors and try to win them with trinkets.read · scan
p. 28First account of a newly reached New World people: their nakedness, appearance, swimming, weapons and friendly confidence on meeting the Europeans.read · scan
p. 28Explorer records strange new lands and customs in a planned geography; coasting, searching for gold, encountering a stilt-house village like Venice.read · scan
p. 28Describes unfamiliar natives, their food and an unknown reptile (iguana) on landing; explorers cautiously leave gifts to reassure them.read · scan
p. 28Explorers venture inland with natives, visiting villages and meeting hospitality; first contact, guns astonish the people.read · scan
p. 28Natives marvel at the ships and cannon; explorer notes new land's animals, and intends a geography of wonders seen in each voyage.read · scan
p. 28Describes new land's flora, fauna and latitude; 870 leagues coasted, gold sought, ships worn by thirteen months' voyage and repaired.read · scan
p. 28Continued voyage: repair stay, natives' reports of cannibal island raiders, arrival at new islands; mostly narrative of contact and preparing for fight.read · scan
p. 28Conclusion of voyage: fight, captives taken, return to Cadiz; little on discovery itself.read · scan

Francis Bacon, The New AtlantisVol. 3

p. 180–181Statue of Columbus, discoverer of the West Indies, stands among honored inventors; the island describes itself as a land unknown.read · scan

Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34

p. 99–100Lists the discovery of America and circumnavigation among chance-born inventions; says Columbus sailed on a storm-driven captain's report of the Caribbean, and that a new world was sought, found and conquered.read · scan
p. 157–158Cites Columbus's discovery of America as achieved without theoretical knowledge of navigation, showing practical discovery preceding theory.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 398Recounts Portuguese stepwise discoveries down Africa to the Cape and da Gama's 1497 voyage, and Columbus's 1492 western voyage, motivated by the aim of reaching the East Indies.read · scan
p. 398–399Describes Columbus's first account of the New World: not the rich Indies expected, but wooded land with naked savages; his persistence in the mistaken identification gave the name Indies.read · scan
p. 400–401Columbus finds little of value in the discovered lands, turns to gold to justify them, returns with exhibits and natives, and Spain takes possession for gold and conversion.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 391–392Notes that America was named for Amerigo Vespucci, who sailed with Hojeda in 1499 and supplanted Columbus in naming the New World; it is an irony about credit for discovery.read · scan

3c.Cabot and the English voyages to North America

John Cabot's Discovery of North AmericaVol. 43

p. 45–46Cabot's 1497 voyage from Bristol finds mainland of North America; coasting, landing, signs of inhabitants, planting flags, royal backing for further voyages.read · scan
p. 46Cabot sails west with small crew, reaches new land, takes possession and returns with proofs; motive to emulate Spain and Portugal.read · scan
p. 47Cabot's motives: spices route to Cipango via west, rich fisheries found; plans for colony and further exploration, crew testimony.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 359Mentions notable and difficult voyages by Englishmen into strange countries and their success, but declines to describe them.read · scan

Captain Walter Bigges, Drake's Great ArmadaVol. 33

p. 256Fleet coasts the unfamiliar shoals of Florida without a pilot, seeks out the Virginia colony, and finds Raleigh's men at Roanoke.read · scan
p. 257Drake offers the Roanoke colonists a ship and provisions to continue discovery of the country and coasts; a storm wrecks the plan.read · scan

Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to NewfoundlandVol. 33

p. 263Report of Gilbert's 1583 voyage to discover and plant lands north of Florida; laments England's lack of thorough discovery, relying on French reports.read · scan
p. 264Cabots' first discovery of the North American coast; argues inland search was neglected and that religion is the proper motive for discovery.read · scan
p. 267Gilbert's failed first English colonizing venture in northern America; explorer's motives, expense, hardship, and lessons for later attempts.read · scan
p. 268Gilbert undertakes western discovery of America under royal commission; preparations collapse through dissension, desertion, and loss of a ship.read · scan
p. 268–269Gilbert's motives and difficulties: patent deadline, territorial claims, north as stepping stone to the south, costly preparations for a personal voyage.read · scan
p. 269Debate over route for intended discovery of North American coast: south-to-north with currents versus Newfoundland first for supplies and season.read · scan
p. 270–271Decision to sail via Newfoundland, then search rivers and bays southward; methods and orders for the discovery voyage.read · scan
p. 273Departure of Gilbert's discovery fleet in 1583; crew with miners and craftsmen, music and trinkets to win over savages by barter.read · scan
p. 285–286Gilbert's expedition continues its discovery voyage, prompted by ore finds and patent obligations; secrecy about ore kept from foreign fishermen, crew desertions and mischief diminish the company.read · scan
p. 294Gilbert, convinced of Newfoundland's riches, plans separate northern and southern discovery fleets for next spring; explorer's motives and confidence in finds.read · scan
p. 297–298Assessment of Gilbert's enterprise: zeal to discover and possess heathen American lands, but rash, lacking a chosen site or proven commodity; costs and outcome weighed.read · scan

First Charter of VirginiaVol. 43

p. 49Charter authorizing adventurers to plant colonies in unoccupied American coasts; concerns colonization rather than exploration itself.read · scan
p. 53–54Charter authorizes colonists to voyage to Virginia, settle and search the new lands for gold, silver and copper mines; expresses the motive of mineral wealth in new territory.read · scan

The Mayflower CompactVol. 43

p. 59Settlers state their undertaking of a voyage to plant the first colony in northern Virginia, for God's glory and king and country; motives of colonizing new land.read · scan

3d.Drake's circumnavigation and Raleigh's Guiana

Sir Francis Drake, Sir Francis Drake RevivedVol. 33

p. 131Landing on a West Indian coast, finding empty fishing cottages and a bay named on an earlier voyage; describes the newly reached harbour and its fertile soil.read · scan
p. 149–150Drake's men row up the Magdalena, enduring strong current, storms and mosquitoes; hardships of penetrating an unfamiliar tropical river, though the aim is raiding.read · scan
p. 170–171Drake climbs the great tree on the isthmus and first sees the Pacific, vowing to sail an English ship there; a landmark first sighting guided by Cimaroons.read · scan
p. 171–172Continued march across the isthmus describes the fertile savanna and its burned tall grass, with a first view of Panama; secondary descriptive account of the country.read · scan

Captain Walter Bigges, Drake's Great ArmadaVol. 33

p. 239First account of Dominica on first reaching the West Indies: naked native people, cassava and tobacco, trade in beads; plague-like sickness strikes the fleet at sea.read · scan
p. 253–254Coasting Florida, the fleet sights an unknown lookout post and lands to learn what the enemy holds, though no one had knowledge of the place.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 301Raleigh's dedication presents his Guiana travels, undertaken late in life to regain favour, as laborious adventure whose account he submits for defence.read · scan
p. 301–302Raleigh recounts hardships of his Guiana journey and motive: the rich empire and El Dorado; earlier scouting, he wandered 400 miles inland by land and river.read · scan
p. 305Reports gold-bearing spar found in Guiana during the expedition and its assays in London, as evidence of what the discovery yielded.read · scan
p. 308–311Opens the voyage narrative: sailing to Trinidad, coasting and landing in every cove to learn the island's rivers, ports and peoples.read · scan
p. 316Purpose to discover Guiana; it lies farther inland than believed; crowded open boats, hardship and leaving ships 400 miles behind.read · scan
p. 319Recounts earlier Spanish attempts on Guiana: Orellana's discovery of the Amazons in 1542, Ordas's attempt, Martinez first seeing Manoa, and Raleigh reaching Morequito on the Orinoco.read · scan
p. 378–379Compares Guiana's discovery with Columbus offering the West Indies; claims the country is already discovered and argues for follow-up enterprise.read · scan

Francis Pretty, Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the WorldVol. 33

p. 199Opening of Drake's circumnavigation into the South Sea; departure, storm delays and first landfall on the Barbary coast, framing the voyage of exploration.read · scan
p. 201Describes the cocos fruit and the climate of the Cape Verde islands for English readers unfamiliar with them, a first account of new things.read · scan
p. 202Describes the Cape Verde islands (Fogo, Brava, Santiago), their volcanoes, inhabitants and waters, observed in passing on the voyage.read · scan
p. 203Fifty-four days without sight of land, first Brazilian coast, footprints of giants, River Plate, and encounter with unknown natives; first accounts of new places and peoples.read · scan
p. 204Ships sent to discover the coast and find harbour; describes painted native people; reaches Port St. Julian, where Magellan's gibbet recalls earlier exploration.read · scan
p. 205Encounter with hostile natives at Port St. Julian and Drake's trial of Doughty to protect the voyage's success, showing the discipline the expedition required.read · scan
p. 206Entry into the Strait of Magellan: describes its turnings, depths, mountains, snow and cold, and the navigational dangers of the passage to the South Sea.read · scan
p. 207–208Passage through the Strait into the South Sea, storm losses, new islands and naked canoe peoples, and Drake's finding that maps of the Chilean coast are wrong.read · scan
p. 208Landing at La Mocha, Drake meets natives fled from Spanish cruelty and is received with gifts, then attacked; an encounter with a people new to him.read · scan
p. 212–213Drake weighs the dangerous Strait of Magellan against a westward route to the Moluccas and sails far north for wind, choosing a route by navigational judgment.read · scan
p. 213First account of a newly reached coast and bay: bitter cold at 43°N, natives' houses, dress and customs, and their reverent wonder at the strangers.read · scan
p. 217Drake claims the land for the Queen with a monument, notes the Spaniards never discovered it, and describes islanders and canoas sighted in the Pacific.read · scan
p. 218Landfall at unfamiliar Pacific and Spice Islands; the Ternate king's deputy guides Drake, and descriptions of islands and cinnamon serve as first accounts.read · scan
p. 221Sailing among East Indian islands, Drake describes a wooded island with fireflies and giant bats, and endures shoals and a grounding on a rock.read · scan
p. 222Account of the island of Barateve: its people, dress, metals, spices and fruits, and refreshment found after the dangers of shoals.read · scan
p. 223First-hand ethnographic account of Java: its five rajahs, dress, weapons, communal meals and rice cookery, reported to English readers.read · scan
p. 223–224Rounding the Cape of Good Hope, Drake finds the Portuguese tales of its storms false, praises the cape, and finishes the circumnavigation.read · scan

4.Methods of exploring

4a.Navigation, surveying and charting

Sir Francis Drake, Sir Francis Drake RevivedVol. 33

p. 153–154Crew sound the channel with pinnaces to bring the ship into a newly found road among shoals; method of surveying unfamiliar waters.read · scan

Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to NewfoundlandVol. 33

p. 271–272Fleet signalling orders for fog, storms and dispersal during the discovery voyage; methods of navigation for exploring.read · scan
p. 272–273Planned course for the discovery: latitudes, rendezvous points, and marks left for following ships to show who had been in harbours.read · scan
p. 286–287Small frigate chosen to discover along the coast and search every harbour; boats fitted for discovery; coastal navigation, latitudes and Cape Race described as first-hand account.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 336Exploration method: boats sent to sound and discover river mouths, shoals blocking ships, dangers of poisoned arrows, forcing a change to small boats.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-RelianceVol. 5

p. 81Cites Columbus finding the New World in an undecked boat, and Hudson and Behring outdoing Parry and Franklin in fishing-boats, to argue that explorers' achievement does not depend on elaborate equipment.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 11States the Beagle expedition's object: completing surveys of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, Peru and Pacific islands, plus chronometric measurements round the world; first landfalls in Cape Verde.read · scan
p. 172–173Survey boat sent to explore the upper harbour, searching for watering places from an old Spanish chart, with a walk into the desolate interior.read · scan
p. 228–229Boat survey of the western Beagle Channel; describes scenery, camping hardships and the sense of being in a remote corner of the world.read · scan
p. 243–244Notes that during the Adventure and Beagle surveying voyages floating kelp marked every near-surface rock, aiding navigation of a stormy unknown coast; cites Cook's Kerguelen observations.read · scan
p. 245–246Beagle leaves the Strait of Magellan by the newly discovered Magdalen Channel, describing the desolate, hostile scenery, uninhabited cove and difficulty of anchorage met in surveying unfamiliar waters.read · scan
p. 250–251Reports surveying results of the Adventure and Beagle voyages: southernmost glacier located, icebergs in Eyre's Sound, and Spanish missionaries encountering icebergs in the Laguna de San Rafael.read · scan
p. 278–279Boat expedition sent to survey the unknown inland coast of Chiloe, with orders to circumnavigate the island; the surveying party's methods and first impressions of the coast.read · scan

4b.Guides, pilots and native informants

See also: War and Peace 7a · Wealth 12g

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 309–310Expedition led by a guide using the Book of Hidden Treasures finds the City of Brass, describes its walls and gates, and seeks entry.read · scan

Sir Francis Drake, Sir Francis Drake RevivedVol. 33

p. 152–153Notes the coast's uninhabited, plentiful country and hidden island channels; the Cimaroons describe difficult mountain, river and thicket routes inland.read · scan
p. 169–170Guided by Cimaroon scouts who know the ways, marking the route by broken boughs through unknown forest; method of overland advance.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 313Raleigh gathers intelligence about Guiana from Spaniards and Indians at Trinidad while concealing his plan to discover it.read · scan
p. 313–314Stays at Trinidad partly to learn more of Guiana's rivers and passages and Berreo's failed enterprise; preparing to enter Guiana by small boats.read · scan
p. 315Sets out on the discovery, winning native allies by presenting Elizabeth as liberator and questioning prisoner Berreo for knowledge of Guiana.read · scan
p. 325–326Notes French voyages to the Amazon and Raleigh's inquiries among Indians about rivers and gold trade from Guiana, gathering knowledge of unknown regions.read · scan
p. 329–330Raleigh gathers geographic knowledge of Orinoco's rivers, peoples and politics from native elders and an interpreter, stressing that such intelligence is needed for entrance.read · scan
p. 330–331Berreo's failed expedition learns from Carapana the route to Guiana; he sends parties to discover the nearest passage into the empire, showing preparatory reconnaissance and native informants.read · scan
p. 336–337Preparing a boat expedition up unknown Orinoco branches: searching entrances, using native pilots, limited victuals for a month, uncertain guidance.read · scan
p. 338Dependence on native pilots and hostages to find the way through the delta; conflict with locals; first account of Tivitivas peoples.read · scan
p. 343Night search for a village guided by a suspected pilot; finding an Indian town, learning of gold trade up the Orinoco, and obtaining provisions.read · scan
p. 345Expedition's methods and motives: seizing native pilots to learn where gold lies, hunger, seasonal floods preventing mining, and secrecy to keep rivals from following.read · scan
p. 347Grounding of galley, hired native pilot, and sighting of Guiana's mountains and the Orinoco; interpreters used to make contact with local people.read · scan
p. 354Raleigh questions the old chief on Guiana's government, extent, neighbouring nations and route, gathering native intelligence about unknown inland peoples.read · scan
p. 355Raleigh ascends the Orinoco toward the Caroli, gathering native intelligence on unknown nations and Guiana's empire, but is blocked by the river's current.read · scan
p. 366Raleigh takes a native chief's son to England, leaves men to learn language and country, and learns native goldworking methods: methods of exploration and first ethnographic information.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 386–387Describes Galapagos tortoises; notes that the Spaniards first discovered the watering-places by following tortoise paths.read · scan
p. 411Darwin's inland excursion up Tahiti's valleys with native guides: methods of penetrating an unknown mountainous interior and the gorge's grandeur.read · scan

4c.Scouting and overland penetration

Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13

p. 80Aeneas goes out to survey the unknown coast at dawn, eager to discover whether the newly found region holds men or beasts; wild uncultivated shore.read · scan
p. 239–243After landing in Latium, Aeneas sends scouts to learn the natives' names, explore their towns and the coasts and shore-lines of the new land.read · scan

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 44–45The King sets out alone to investigate the mysterious lake, travelling through wastes and entering an unknown black palace, seeking information about the unfamiliar place.read · scan
p. 243Stranded alone on an unknown island, Sindibad climbs a tree to survey it and finds a huge white dome; explorer's isolation, hardship and discovery.read · scan
p. 305Emir Musa's expedition travels toward the City of Brass and meets a confined 'Efrit, guided by a book; an exploring party's encounter with marvels.read · scan
p. 310–311Explorers scout the City of Brass, sending a rider around it and climbing a mountain to view the empty city; first description of a discovered place.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 351Raleigh sends parties to scout the land beyond the banks; learns from pilot of the plains and nations; curious about poisoned arrows.read · scan
p. 355–356Expedition parties sent overland to scout the Caroli, its falls and mines; flooded rivers hinder; first European description of the great overfalls and native reports of lakes and nations.read · scan
p. 367Limits of the expedition: no tools to test mines; Raleigh leaves Sparrow to travel to Macureguarai and Manoa to learn the place.read · scan
p. 367–368Overland march with native guides to a reputed gold mountain, describing the unknown valleys, rivers, game and fish of Amariocapana.read · scan

John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4

p. 108Beelzebub proposes to learn what creatures inhabit the rumored new world and where they are weak, a motive of reconnaissance before conquest.read · scan

Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26

p. 413–416Melchthal describes searching every remote valley and glacier base and scouting Sarnen castle to find settlements and gauge enemy strength; exploring as reconnaissance, with modest discovery.read · scan

Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25

p. 413Scott's seven 'raids' into Liddesdale, exploring every rivulet and ruin in a district with no inns or wheeled carriage, gathering songs and relics; a domestic, near-untraveled region.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 107–108Miranda's troops cross two to three hundred miles of completely unknown country, penetrating 'to the end of the world' guided by sun and mare's flesh; shows frontier travel methods.read · scan
p. 112Ride of four hundred miles across an uninhabited country, with Gaucho guides wary of Indians and an unsettled frontier; gives an account of largely unknown terrain.read · scan
p. 112–113Darwin climbs the Sierra Ventana, which no foreigner had ascended; rumors of coal, gold and caves inflame then disappoint his curiosity; he speculates on the source of the Sauce river.read · scan
p. 114Continuing the ascent of the unexplored Sierra Ventana: hardships of rugged climbing, cramp, wary reconnaissance for Indians, and giving up the higher peaks.read · scan
p. 115Describes the novelty and slight danger of the mountain ascent, and bivouac precautions against Indians, in an unfrequented region.read · scan
p. 182Fitz Roy resolves to follow the little-known Santa Cruz River beyond Captain Stokes's furthest point; first description of the river's size, current and valley.read · scan
p. 183Methods and hardships of river exploration: tracking boats against the current, camp organization, watch against Indians; country beyond Stokes's turning point is terra incognita.read · scan
p. 238–239Encounters with hostile Fuegians near the strait and Darwin's arduous ascent of Mount Tarn through dense forest, giving a first view of the country.read · scan
p. 269Pincheira crossed the Cordillera by previously unattempted passes to a secret hideout in the Pampas that pursuers never found; Darwin also records his own southernmost point and ravine climbs.read · scan
p. 299–300Attempt to follow the rugged coast on foot proves impracticable; Indians' methods of crossing unknown forest with roasted corn.read · scan
p. 317Preparations to cross the Andes by the lofty, dangerous Portillo pass, a route less used than the main pass.read · scan
p. 412Exploring Tahiti's interior by ropes and ledge-climbing along native-discovered tracks; describes hardships, dangers, and bivouac in the ravines.read · scan

4d.The discipline of observation and report

Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3

p. 45–46Advises travellers to observe and keep diaries, noting sailors record voyages though only sea and sky are seen; methods of observing foreign lands.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11

p. 343–344Compares dogmatizing about the succession of life from limited European fossil knowledge to a naturalist landing five minutes on an Australian point and judging its productions.read · scan
p. 374Notes that only a small portion of the globe has been geologically explored with care, so the record of past life is imperfect.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 507–508Benefits of long voyages: the map ceases to be blank, distant lands' true scale is grasped; the explorer's novelty-driven zeal and superficial sketches; Cook's era contrasted.read · scan
p. 509Darwin reflects on the explorer-naturalist's hardships and rewards: dangers are less than anticipated, and long voyages teach patience, self-reliance and trust in strangers' kindness.read · scan

Sir Archibald Geikie, Geographical EvolutionVol. 30

p. 325Contrasts older geography as travellers' tales and adventure with modern scientific geography; Hakluyt's Navigations; traces geography's progress beyond the explorer's narrative.read · scan
p. 326Modern geography fits out exploratory expeditions with instruments; explorers judged by additions to knowledge of the earth, beyond courage and endurance.read · scan
p. 327Honours pioneers who crossed unknown savage regions against hunger, fever and drought; later explorers need training and must yield detailed results beyond first glimpses.read · scan
p. 330–331Challenger Expedition's deep-sea dredging explorations revealed ocean-floor sediments and organic ooze, new knowledge of the sea bottom.read · scan

5.Hardships and perils of exploration

5a.Storms, uncharted seas and shipwreck

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 88A king's pleasure voyage carries his fleet into strange waters unknown to the captain; the lookout spots something unknown on the horizon, the start of an unplanned discovery.read · scan
p. 248Sindibad, having reached the remote diamond valley, tells merchants of his voyage and how he came there; shows hazards of reaching unknown places.read · scan
p. 250–251Driven off course to the Mountain of Apes, the crew meets unknown hostile creatures and a giant's dwelling; dangers of unknown lands and peoples.read · scan
p. 282Ship strays from its course into an unknown sea whose routes no one knows; the master fears destruction, showing the peril of uncharted waters.read · scan

Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to NewfoundlandVol. 33

p. 287Coasting survey of Newfoundland, landing parties report soil fertile; shipwreck on unknown shoals, with reckonings recorded for sea charts to warn later navigators.read · scan
p. 289Wreck of the Delight with nearly a hundred lost, including a scholar meant to record the discovery; shows dangers of exploring unknown coasts.read · scan
p. 290Hardships of the discovery voyage: loss of the refiner-discoverer, survivors in open pinnace reach Newfoundland after famine and peril.read · scan
p. 295–296Gilbert's frigate lost at sea with his cry 'as near to heaven by sea as by land'; survivors return; hazards of the voyage.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 372Dangerous homeward passage of the expedition, crossing the sea at the river mouth in a storm in small boats, described as the bitterest part of the journey.read · scan

Francis Bacon, The New AtlantisVol. 3

p. 145Narrator's ship, lost and starving in the unknown South Sea, sights an unknown land and enters its port, a first account of a newly reached country.read · scan
p. 157–158Recounts failed ancient expeditions across Atlantic and South Sea by American kingdoms; one never returned, the other was captured on reaching the island.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 221Twenty-four days of gales trying to round westward along the outer coast; exhaustion, dangers of uncharted seas, near loss, and abandoning the attempt.read · scan
p. 255Imagines a navigator pushing north among icebergs facing a thousand dangers, and missionaries in boats blocked by ice while penetrating an unexplored inlet, illustrating hazards of exploration.read · scan
p. 286–287Survey discovers a new harbour on a wild coast, rescuing castaways lost fifteen months; shows the dangers of the coast and the limit of man's knowledge.read · scan
p. 503–504Darwin weighs the hardships and rewards of circumnavigation, contrasting Cook's era privations with present ease, and notes a hemisphere added to the civilized world.read · scan
p. 504Hardships of long sea voyages: seasickness, tedium of the ocean waste, storms; the voyager's experience of the sea.read · scan

5b.Flood, famine, sickness and failed expeditions

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 283–284Castaways explore an unknown island ringed by mountains, marvel at its wonders, and die of hunger; the survivor repents of voyaging, showing explorers' hardships.read · scan

Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to NewfoundlandVol. 33

p. 296Reflection on the voyage's hardships: mutinies, sickness, wrecks, unrecompensed toil; crew disperses after an apparently unprofitable discovery voyage.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 305–306Explorer's defence of the voyage: flooded rivers, tangled woods, frail boats and lack of time prevented bringing back more ore; shows hardships of methods.read · scan
p. 307Raleigh denies faking the ore and speaks of long voyages' discomforts, perils and diseases, giving his motives for exploring as service to country and gold.read · scan
p. 316–317Missed chance to reach Manoa because rivers flooded; promises wealth surpassing Mexico and Peru, and explains Guiana's Inca-descended empire.read · scan
p. 320Tells of Orellana's and Ordas's failed expeditions and how Martinez, cast adrift, was carried to Manoa, first European to reach it; first account of a new place.read · scan
p. 322Orsua's and Aguirre's descent of the Amazon seeking Guiana: famine, mutiny, no entrance found, and emerging at the river mouth; hardships of exploring.read · scan
p. 322–324Aguirre's rampage ends and further failed expeditions (Ortal, Silva) to enter Guiana, showing the dangers and failures of exploring.read · scan
p. 324–325Successive failed Spanish entradas (Serpa, Quesada, Berreo) versus Raleigh's deeper penetration; Raleigh mentions his map and secrecy against rival nations.read · scan
p. 327Berreo's year-long river and land expedition down the Meta and Orinoco, losing men and horses to currents, sickness, and hostile peoples, seeking Guiana.read · scan
p. 327–329Berreo's hardships in Amapaia: poisonous waters, disease, impassable mountains, no interpreters, and hostile natives; motive of gold and failure of the exploration.read · scan
p. 335Raleigh declares his resolve to see Guiana; Berreo lists the dangers: shallow rivers, hostile natives, floods, scarce victuals, discouraging the explorers.read · scan
p. 341Hardships of upriver voyage: grounding, strong current, heat, dwindling food, despairing crew persuaded onward; discovery recorded in chart.read · scan
p. 342Explorers' hardships: hunger, faintness, rowing against the current; reliance on doubtful native pilot; marvels of fruits, flowers and birds along the river.read · scan
p. 361Describes the Orinoco's navigability and reach toward Peru; Raleigh ends the westward push because of floods, rains and men's hardships, then explores the river toward the sea.read · scan
p. 371Hardships of exploring the Orinoco: storms, swollen current, separated parties, a guide's offer to send his son to England, and a difficult escape to the sea in small boats.read · scan
p. 377Guiana is untouched, never entered by an army; Spanish explorers from Orellana to Berreo failed to find the way in, showing the difficulty of discovery and access.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 348Sir John Franklin cited as a man who explored Wellington Sound if open and never turned his back on danger; illustrates explorer's courage.read · scan
p. 360–361Admiralty sent Arctic expeditions year after year seeking Franklin, threading polar pack and Bering Strait to solve the geographical problem; Herschel's southern sky survey and antiquarian excavations show research pertinacity.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 192–193Expedition ends at 140 miles upriver: short provisions and unpromising land stop the party short of the Cordillera, which they must only imagine; returns after 21 days.read · scan
p. 284Attempt to climb San Pedro through impenetrable tangled forest shows the hardships of penetrating unexplored wild country; the party gives up in despair.read · scan
p. 297Account of the first man to cut through the forest from S. Carlos to Castro, deaths of earlier attempters, Indians who discovered a wrecked crew.read · scan
p. 364Hardships of crossing the Cordillera: a guide's party struck by a gale, deaths, lost mules, and an earlier party that perished without trace.read · scan

6.First accounts of newly found lands and peoples

6a.Descriptions of new coasts, rivers, islands and natural wonders

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 44The King finds a hitherto unknown lake with four-coloured fish in a desert no one has seen, and resolves to learn its history.read · scan
p. 94Stranded on an island, the narrator crosses ground the retreating sea has exposed and comes upon an unknown copper-plated palace; an incidental encounter with a new place.read · scan
p. 100–101A ship strays into a sea the captain has never navigated and reaches an unknown city whose inhabitants are turned to black stone; first account of a newly reached place.read · scan
p. 102The traveller explores the petrified city's citadel and palace room by room, describing its wonders in amazement; a first-hand account of a newly found place.read · scan
p. 238–239Sindibad reports wonders of newly visited Indian islands: caste divisions, the island of Kasil, giant fish; first-hand travellers' account of strange places and peoples.read · scan
p. 243–244He identifies the dome as the rukh's egg, known from travellers' tales, and escapes by the bird; encounter with a marvel of unknown lands.read · scan
p. 249Returning from the diamond valley, Sindibad relates his sufferings and the states of different countries to inquirers; a traveller's report of new places.read · scan
p. 259Sindbad reports wonders seen in the Sea of India: strange fish, animals and a sea-born bird, a brief first-hand account of unfamiliar marine creatures.read · scan
p. 273Sindbad sets out to see foreign islands; landing on a deserted island, the party finds a giant rukh's egg, a marvel of newly seen places.read · scan
p. 279–281Voyage past islands yielding cinnamon, pepper, aloes-wood and pearls, with notes on the islands' products and inhabitants' customs.read · scan
p. 289Sindbad reports to the Caliph on the foreign court he saw in Sarandib, giving an account of a distant king's state and customs.read · scan

Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36

p. 135–137Introduces Hythloday, a mariner who can tell of many strange and unknown peoples and countries, setting up the traveller's first-hand account of new places.read · scan

Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to NewfoundlandVol. 33

p. 281Descriptive account of Newfoundland: its extent, harbours, and climate, refuting reports of extreme cold; a first-hand geographic report of a newly visited land.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 311–312First account of Trinidad: pitch lake, oyster trees, soil, fauna, native nations, and that Raleigh coasted the island to describe it.read · scan
p. 320Martinez's blindfolded stay in Manoa, description of the city, and his relation of travels; first-hand account of an unknown realm, robbed of gold on return.read · scan
p. 339–340First description of the Orinoco's mouth, its sixteen arms, and the Tivitivas who live in trees in flood season; wonders of birds and land.read · scan
p. 344Raleigh's first account of newly seen country up the river: plains, deer, fowl, lagartos; a man lost to a crocodile; boats sent ahead; supplies running short.read · scan
p. 350Describes the Orinoco's extent, islands, branches and navigability, noting ore-bearing rocks; geographic first report of a newly reached river.read · scan
p. 356First account of the Guiana landscape and its apparent mineral wealth; lack of tools limits the search, and misjudged ore specimens show explorers' hopes and errors.read · scan
p. 358Raleigh reflects on the hardships of such voyages yet is lured by riches; reports of gems and of Lake Cassipa gathered from natives.read · scan
p. 359Reports of newly heard rivers and the headless Ewaipanoma; Raleigh defends travellers' tales by noting Mandeville's once-doubted accounts were confirmed after the East Indies' discovery.read · scan
p. 360Corroboration of the headless-men report by a Spaniard; notes the great Casnero river unexplored for lack of time and season, with Guiana's rainy winter.read · scan
p. 360Geographical survey of the Orinoco's tributaries, peoples and provinces, including earlier Spanish explorers' routes (Berreo, Orsua) seeking Guiana.read · scan
p. 368–369Exploring the Orinoco's branches toward the sea; sighting of the crystal mountain and its cataract, unreachable because of distance, season and hostile peoples.read · scan
p. 369–371Raleigh reports the Orinoco's branches, mouths and rivers beyond and the tribes living there, then the hard return upriver; geographical first-account material.read · scan
p. 375Raleigh reports what he saw in Guiana to encourage further exploration: the river's extent, riches, game, healthful climate, and his men's survival despite hardships.read · scan
p. 376–377Reports Guiana's unexplored commodities, unsearched for lack of time, and a safer, shorter sea route than West Indies voyages, based on his voyage experience.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 184–186Traveller Kalm's 1749 account of husbandry in the English North American colonies and of the land's original abundance when Europeans first settled.read · scan

Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26

p. 418–419Legend of a northern people, driven by famine, migrating south, finding an uninhabited land, surveying it, discovering springs and founding Schwytz: settlement and first reaching of new country.read · scan

William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41

p. 610–612A youth crosses the Atlantic and sees a fresh, glorious New World, then falls into lawless ways among wild men; a brief first-impression of newly reached lands.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11

p. 330Darwin cites his own overland travel in Brazil and the Plata, and reports of travellers, to show that vast granitic regions remain little explored.read · scan
p. 371–372Fossil mammals from Australian caves, La Plata and Brazilian caves, collected and compared; Darwin's own observations in South America yield the 'law of succession of types'.read · scan
p. 401–402Reports plant collections and discoveries by Hooker, Gardner, Humboldt on distant mountains of Africa, Brazil, Tierra del Fuego; botanical findings from explored regions.read · scan
p. 402–403Botanical discoveries on Himalaya, Java, Borneo, Australian and New Zealand mountains reported by Hooker and Müller; floras of remote regions newly described.read · scan
p. 448Notes that the discovery of Australia added no new insect class and only a few small plant families, showing what a newly found land yielded.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 20Landing on remote St. Paul's Rocks, where unwary birds show no fear of visitors; notes a rock near Bermuda discovered by the fish around it.read · scan
p. 21Naturalist's first impressions of a Brazilian forest and Fernando Noronha, a brief first account of newly visited places, with the explorer's delight.read · scan
p. 70Darwin's first account of the Rio Negro coast: barren country, scarce water, thorny bushes, southernmost civilized settlement, and Indian attacks on estancias at the frontier.read · scan
p. 77–78Darwin describes the changing country approaching the Colorado and its crossing, a first-hand account of a little-known region, though chiefly about the army camp.read · scan
p. 104–105Darwin links the sea-pen to old voyagers' strange tales, citing Captain Lancaster's 1601 account of a tree-worm on Sombrero island, as explorers' reports explained.read · scan
p. 109–110Notes the vast unknown country south of the Rio Negro where Indians would be safe, and the immense territory Indians roam.read · scan
p. 169–170First landing in a new country, Patagonia: Darwin gives a first account of its desert character, and notes failed Spanish colonies and Indian massacres.read · scan
p. 184Explorers likened to navigators approaching an unknown land, hailing every small sign of change; also describes the sterile Patagonian country found.read · scan
p. 198–199Notes early voyagers, especially Bougainville, reporting the wolf-like fox as the Falklands' only native animal; first accounts of the islands' fauna.read · scan
p. 201The Falklands' 'streams of stones' have astonished every voyager since Pernety, who gave an early account of them.read · scan
p. 216–217Rounding Cape Horn in storm, reaching Wigwam Cove; describes the notorious headland, local geology and native habitations and shell middens.read · scan
p. 377First-hand account of landing on Chatham Island in the Galapagos: its forbidding lava, scrubby vegetation and heat, a newly reached place described.read · scan
p. 385Describes the reptile fauna of the Galapagos as a first account of a newly visited archipelago, citing earlier voyagers' reports.read · scan
p. 398–399Darwin discovers that Galapagos islands have distinct island-specific species; remarks that voyagers are hurried away just after finding what is most interesting in a place.read · scan
p. 404Notes the tameness of birds on newly visited islands, as remarked by earlier voyagers such as Pernety, and its loss as visits increase.read · scan
p. 420Reflects on the immensity of the Pacific and how small islands are, conveying the scale of oceanic voyaging and the Antipodes.read · scan
p. 469Notes voyagers' astonishment at atolls and early accounts (Pyrard de Laval, Beechey) of these newly seen Pacific lagoon-islands; mainly coral theory, so only incidental.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 56Geographic description of California's coast and mention of the bay discovered by Sir Francis Drake, giving a brief account of the region's discovery and layout.read · scan
p. 135–136Sailors land at a reputedly dangerous anchorage and go ashore to explore the strange, unfamiliar place.read · scan
p. 145–146Map with blank undiscovered polar regions; Hawaiian asks 'Pau?' (ended?), showing the unexplored limits of the known world.read · scan
p. 165Historical account of California's discovery by Cortes in 1536, later Spanish voyages, reports of fertility and gold rumors, and the Jesuit settlement that followed discovery.read · scan
p. 220Notes San Francisco Bay was discovered by Drake and gives a first-hand account of its harbors, fertility and settlements, though the passage mainly describes a Russian brig.read · scan
p. 226–227Describes San Francisco Bay's coves, islands, fertile shores and game with an eye to its future importance, in the manner of an account of a newly seen place.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Twenty-Four Years AfterVol. 23

p. 375Describes the Bay of San Francisco in 1835-6 as a remote, almost unknown solitude, with charts patched from old surveys and no lighthouses: a first-account-style picture of a little-known coast.read · scan
p. 403–404Mentions the Alert's last whaling voyage to Hurd's Island, a newly discovered land south of Kerguelen, but gives no account of the discovery.read · scan

Henry David Thoreau, WalkingVol. 28

p. 406–407Traveller Sir Francis Head's first-impression account of the New World's grander nature, contrasted with Buffon and Linnaeus; traveller safe from wild beasts in North America.read · scan

6b.First contact with native peoples

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 296Ship blown off course reaches a land of naked black people whose king says no son of Adam had come before; first account of a newly reached people.read · scan

Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36

p. 137Hythloday's first account of lands beyond the equator: scorching deserts with savage peoples, then temperate lands with cities; winning natives' favour and travelling with guides.read · scan
p. 137–139Hythloday's voyages to new-found lands: the natives learn the lodestone from voyagers, and travellers seek knowledge of foreign laws rather than monsters.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 337Lost in a labyrinth of rivers; names a river the River of the Red Cross as first Christians there; first contact and trade with natives.read · scan
p. 345–346Hardships of the flooding Orinoco and distance from ships; Raleigh's conduct toward natives to win goodwill against Spanish slander; first contact with Guianian peoples.read · scan
p. 347–348Arrival at the river junction, first encounters with Toparimaca and his people, their food, drink, customs and hospitality, and directions toward Guiana.read · scan
p. 349Ethnographic first account of a native town and people; the need for an experienced local pilot given the Orinoco's dangerous currents, shoals and rocks.read · scan
p. 352Native remedies for poisoned arrows passed on as advice to future travellers; continued progress upriver, deferring searches of the land until the return.read · scan
p. 353Meeting the aged king of Aromaia; natives bring unfamiliar fruits and an armadillo; Raleigh states the purpose of his voyage.read · scan
p. 369Raleigh's party pushes up the Orinoco, meeting native chieftains at Winicapora and learning of Carapana, Guiana's borders and mountains, and Spanish rivalry; an account of newly reached peoples.read · scan
p. 373Raleigh summarizes the discovery, cataloguing the nations found along the Orinoco and beyond, their locations, alliances and enmities, and reports of headless men and Amazons.read · scan

René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34

p. 15–16Descartes reports that in his travels he found distant peoples, not barbarians, often reason as well as Europeans, showing how the encounter with foreign customs undermines confidence in custom.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 177Describes first contact between Spaniards and the natives of Cuba and St. Domingo on discovery: natives' indifference to gold and astonishment at the Spaniards' rage for it.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, MannersVol. 5

p. 199Reports from the US Exploring Expedition and travelers (Belzoni) on Feejee cannibals, Gournou tomb-dwellers, and Borgoo and Bornoo peoples; first accounts of remote peoples, and trade drawing visitors to them.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 336Mentions the American Exploring Expedition, whose Pickering thought he saw every kind of man on the planet, used to count human races.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 209First arrival in Tierra del Fuego: Beagle enters Le Maire strait, anchors at Good Success Bay, and meets Fuegians and an utterly unfamiliar landscape.read · scan
p. 211First contact with Fuegians who are unaccustomed to Europeans; also the background of Fitz Roy's earlier survey voyage and the natives taken to England.read · scan
p. 217Ethnographic first account of Fuegians: wigwams, nakedness, hardship and food, seen as abject, barely human peoples in a wretched climate.read · scan
p. 222–223Boat expedition up the Beagle Channel, discovered by Fitz Roy; describes its geography and natives who had never seen white men, origin of name Land of Fire.read · scan
p. 233–234Reflection on Fuegian society and the mention of Tahiti and New Zealand as peoples when first discovered; Fuegia Basket later met by sealers.read · scan
p. 407Darwin describes the first impressions of landing in a new country, Tahiti, its coral reef, vegetation and reception by natives, in the manner of a first account.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 143–144Sailors' belief that Captain Cook was eaten by islanders; Bingham's father saw Cook, recalling the explorer's contact with Pacific peoples.read · scan
p. 200Sailor George wrecked in the Pelew Islands, captured by natives, tattooed and kept thirteen months; first-hand account of encounter with an unfamiliar island people.read · scan
p. 200–202Rescue of George from the Pelew Islands and his written journal of adventures among the islanders; aftermath of a castaway's encounter with natives.read · scan

6c.The effects of discovery on the discovered

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 327Assesses the consequences of America's discovery for Europe: new markets, cheaper precious metals and expanded division of labour; concerns results rather than the voyages themselves.read · scan
p. 327–328Notes the discovery of the Cape route to the East Indies alongside America, and the injustice and destruction suffered by newly found peoples.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 438–439Reflects on the destructive results of European contact with native peoples, including disease from ships and decline of aboriginal populations after first intercourse.read · scan
p. 439Records that ships' arrival brings disease to isolated islanders (Pitcairn, St. Kilda, Tahiti), an effect of voyagers' first contact with remote peoples.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 241–242Laments that the first discoverer of each South Sea island was its curse, since white contact brought disease and decline to islanders; a result of exploration.read · scan

6d.Exploration as image and metaphor

See also: Monarchy 9c · Angel 7c · Sin 2c

Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20

p. 289Dante's opening image of a proud keel cutting an uncharted sea, warning followers back and comparing it to the Argonauts' voyage, frames his ascent as unprecedented exploration, though metaphorical.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio MagnaVol. 39

p. 126Bacon compares the need for a new method to mariners who, guided only by stars, could not cross the ocean and discover the New World until the compass was found.read · scan

Christopher Marlowe, Edward the SecondVol. 46

p. 87Mortimer, facing execution, compares death to a traveller going to discover countries yet unknown; exploration used only as a metaphor for dying.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46

p. 143–144Hamlet calls death 'the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns'; the unexplored land serves as a metaphor for the fear of death.read · scan

John Donne, PoemsVol. 40

p. 312–313Donne contrasts sea-discoverers going to new worlds and maps of other worlds with the lovers' single world, alluding to the age of discovery.read · scan

Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3

p. 265–266Dismisses the wonders sought abroad, such as the Nile and Africa's prodigies, because the same wonders lie within man. This sets inner study against outward travel and exploration.read · scan

John Milton, AreopagiticaVol. 3

p. 202Compares the spread of foreign books to an Indian voyage sailed by a northeast passage past Cataio or a northwest passage past Canada; it alludes to the search for new sea routes.read · scan

John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4

p. 108Argument: the devils choose Satan to undertake the perilous solitary voyage to search out the new world, passing Hell-gates and the gulf to sight it.read · scan
p. 108Council asks who will search out the new world through the unbounded Abyss; Satan voices the unknown dangers, and only he dares the voyage.read · scan
p. 108Bands of devils set out on bold adventure to discover the infernal world for easier habitation, marching along rivers and finding frozen lands.read · scan
p. 108The exploring devils traverse dreadful regions; Satan explores his solitary flight to Hell's gates, compared to merchant fleets sailing from the Indies.read · scan
p. 129Hell-gates open to reveal the unknown Deep of Chaos to Satan, a first sight of an uncharted realm on his voyage.read · scan
p. 129Satan's perilous voyage across Chaos, the unmapped abyss: he ponders the crossing, falls, wades and flies through hazards, like an explorer in uncharted wilderness.read · scan
p. 129Satan tells Chaos he comes 'no spy' to explore its realm, only seeking the path to light; asks directions of the unknown abyss's ruler.read · scan
p. 136Satan's first sight of the World compared to a scout at dawn discovering a foreign land or city; wonder at new worlds and happy isles.read · scan
p. 246–249Raphael describes a scouting voyage 'uncouth and obscure' toward the gates of Hell, reporting what was found there.read · scan
p. 292Sin and Death resolve to venture across Chaos and build a path to the newly found world, an adventurous work following Satan's track.read · scan
p. 297–300Satan's followers await their 'great Adventurer' returning from the search of foreign worlds; his exploit opened a route between Hell and the new world.read · scan
p. 300Satan recounts his voyage through Chaos as an adventure: hardship, opposition of Night, the strange journey, and first finding of the newly created world.read · scan

Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40

p. 422Compares the stork's migration to Columbus exploring heavens and worlds unknown before, using the explorer as an image of instinct.read · scan

Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34

p. 111–112Compares Descartes's original work to discovering a new tract of land: the discoverer cannot know all the soil's properties, and those who follow cultivate it and owe him the discovery.read · scan
p. 121–122Metaphorically describes philosophers finding a 'new universe' whose existence was unsuspected; discovery framed as bold exploration, with telescopes bringing distant bodies nearer. Figurative, not geographic.read · scan

Leigh Hunt, On the Realities of ImaginationVol. 27

p. 294Contrasts Columbus's world with poets' discoveries, and notes America enriched when Humboldt returned with an account of its vegetation, southern skies and constellations.read · scan

Victor Hugo, Preface to CromwellVol. 39

p. 375Uses the metaphor of a poetic voyage, mapping acquisitions and new aspects of the domain of art brought home; exploration figurative only.read · scan

Edgar Allan Poe, The Poetic PrincipleVol. 28

p. 391Poetic imagery of scents from far-distant, undiscovered islands over dim, illimitable, unexplored oceans, evoking the lure of unknown seas.read · scan

Henry David Thoreau, WalkingVol. 28

p. 395Thoreau likens walking to a crusade and to adventurous expeditions undertaken never to return, evoking the explorer's spirit of leaving home and ties behind.read · scan
p. 400–401Thoreau says the Nature he walks in was not discovered by Columbus or Vespucci; myth gives a truer account than histories of America's discovery.read · scan
p. 422Climbing a pine reveals unseen mountains on the horizon; a small personal act of discovery of the unfamiliar near home.read · scan