The act of one who seeks; a search or quest to find something.
1873, Van Nostrands Eclectic Engineering Magazine'' (volume 9, page 269)
(..) the Company contemplated having their works at Esher—for they have had long and anxious seekings for a location—to store our gun-cotton in unlimited quantity (..)
While De Anza was exploring the Bay of San Francisco, seeking a site for the presidio, the American colonists on the eastern seaboard, three thousand miles away, were celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence.