Let me get more into the air, Sirs.'
"'The chicha! the chicha!' cried Don Pedro; 'our vigorous friend
looks faint;--fill up his empty glass!'
"No need, gentlemen; one moment, and I proceed.--Now, gentlemen,
so suddenly perceiving the snowy whale within fifty yards of the ship--
forgetful of the compact among the crew--in the excitement of the moment,
the Teneriffe man had instinctively and involuntarily lifted his voice
for the monster, though for some little time past it had been plainly
beheld from the three sullen mast-heads. All was now a phrensy.
'The White Whale--the White Whale!' was the cry from captain,
mates, and harpooneers, who, undeterred by fearful rumours,
were all anxious to capture so famous and precious a fish;
while the dogged crew eyed askance, and with curses, the appalling beauty
of the vast milky mass, that lit up by a horizontal spangling sun,
shifted and glistened like a living opal in the blue morning sea.
Gentlemen, a strange fatality pervades the whole career of these events,
as if verily mapped out before the world itself was charted.
The mutineer was the bowsman of the mate, and when fast to a fish,
it was his duty to sit next him, while Radney stood up with his lance
in the prow, and haul in or slacken the line, at the word of command.
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