Nor did early explorers find America to be an exotic untouched wilderness.
The icy deep, explorers are finding, can preserve objects much longer than they would last on land.
But once down, the explorers found themselves in a square box of a metal-walled chamber.
What the explorers found was an abundance of land and resources.
The explorers didn't find their quarry, but they tried another tack.
In the rain forest, for example, explorers are still finding new plants and insects.
But it is not the Native people that give a clue as to what the explorers will find at their journey's end.
The steep canyons of the river and the mountains are much as the early explorers found them.
Not long after the cave was discovered, early explorers found the body of an indigenous man within.
Those so posted were expected to do a certain amount of exploring, and sometimes the explorers found something valuable.