THE WHITE WHALE 237 
always ready dug to the seaman’s hand — that fatal hour was then to 
come ; and in the fore-ordaining soul of Steelkilt, the mate was already 
stark and stretched as a corpse, with his forehead crushed in. 
“But, gentlemen, a fool saved the would-be murderer from the 
bloody deed ha had planned. Yet complete revenge he had, and with- 
out being the avenger. For by a mysterious fatality, Heaven itself 
seemed to step in to take put of his hands into its own the damning 
thing he would have done. 
“It was just between daybreak and sunrise of the morning of the 
second day, when they were washing down the decks, that a stupid 
Teneriffe man, drawing water in the main-chains, all at once shouted 
out, ‘There she rolls! there she rolls!’ Jesu, what a whale! It was 
Moby Dick. 
“ ‘Moby Dick !’ cried Don Sebastian ; ‘St. Dominic ! Sir sailor, but 
do whales have christenings ? Whom call you Moby Dick V 
“A very white, and famous, and most deadly immortal monster, 
Don ; — but that would be too long a story. 
“ ‘How ? how V cried all the young Spaniards, crowding. 
“Hay, Dons, Dons — nay, nay! I cannot rehearse that now. 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 !’ 
“Ho need, gentlemen; one moment, and I proceed. — How, gentle- 
men, 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 mastheads. All 
was now a frenzy. ‘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. 
