Unit 3

What Does It Mean to Explore?

Exploring Where No Man Has Gone Before

---

The idea of exploring new places has always intrigued people.

People began by exploring unknown places close to home. Then, during the Age of Exploration, an explosion of travel began.   Voyageurs left the shores of their countries in search of new places and experiences.

Many times these explorers didn't know exactly where they were going, but an overall curiosity caused people to put their lives at great risk in order to explore the unknown.

During one of his many expeditions to Newfoundland in the mid 1760s, explorer Captain James Cook declared that he intended to not only explore, "... further than any man has ever seen before me, but as far as I think it is possible to go."

Exploration provided new categories for words and ideas.

For example, although Indigenous people named and knew the land very well, explorer Jacques Cartier was one of the first explorers to describe and map the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the shores of the St. Lawrence River in Canada.