When Pánfilo de Narváez decided upon an interior exploration during his ill-fated expedition to Florida in 1528, another member of the crew, Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, expressed serious doubts. They were in a land they knew nothing about, he argued, with no idea as to where exactly they were. The irony is that such conditions constituted the expedition’s raison d’etre: exploration is all about making the unknown known and fixing one’s position. This is, in part, what distinguishes exploration from mere travel. It also explains why mapping is such a fundamental component of exploration. An exploration not described carefully, with its course chronicled and itinerary mapped, would be considered a failure by most monarchs and merchants who tended to sponsor such ventures. The act of exploring truly reached fruition, much like “discovery,” only when described and fixed in space: that is, when textually constituted and codified.
The textual constitution,...
