Overview

One of the greatest thrills man can experience is the discovery of something that no one has ever seen. The exhilaration of traveling a wild unexplored locale, facing hazards natural and native while discovering the hitherto unknown, has attracted explorers of the world for thousands of years. By the eighteenth century man's quest for the unknown led explorers such as Captain James Cook (1728-1779) on scientific voyages around the globe. Some attempted, unsuccessfully, to reach the farthest corners of the globe—such as a 1773 British Admiralty expedition to the North Pole. Others, such as surveyor and explorer Alexander Mackenzie (1763-1820), who traveled across land to the Pacific Ocean, explored a single continent—North America. Organizations developed such as the African Association founded in June 1788, whose main objective was the exploration of Africa. By the end of the eighteenth century...