ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book aims to qualify V. T. Harlow's interpretation of events and examines some aspects of imperial endeavour after the American War of Independence. It begins with the voyage of the Investigator was clearly in the Cook, Thomson, James Colnett and Vancouver tradition of empirical observation and evaluation, and was another example of the inter-relationship between exploration, science and empire. A new southern whale fishery would supply the valuable oil which energetic Nantucketers had previously exported to England. The natural historians and draughtsmen who accompanied later explorers continued to ensure that the growth of scientific knowledge would go hand in hand with the growth of geographical knowledge. Because the scientific personnel working at frontiers of empire adopted an empirical and utilitarian approach to nature, it was to be expected that they would develop views of empire which were in concert with their method.
