Exploration is travel undertaken to locate a land or seek information about people. King Mosiah authorized sixteen strong men to go to the land of Lehi-Nephi “to inquire concerning their brethren,” with Ammon as their leader (Mosiah 7:2-3). They did not know the wilderness course and “wandered many days,” even forty days (Mosiah 7:4).
King Limhi sent forty-three people into the wilderness to find Zarahemla and seek deliverance from bondage (Mosiah 8:7). Though they were lost for many days, they traveled among many waters and found a land “covered with bones of men, and of beasts,” as well as ruins of buildings (Mosiah 8:8).
Limhi’s searchers returned to the land of Nephi with twenty-four gold plates filled with engravings (Mosiah 8:9). They had supposed the land of dry bones to be Zarahemla and brought a record engraven on plates of ore (Mosiah 21:25-27).