289 
THE WHITE WHALE 
yeuna Shakers, where he had been a great prophet; in their cracked, 
secret meetings, having several times descended from heaven by the 
way of a trap-door, announcing the -speedy opening of the seventh 
vial, which he carried in his vest-pocket; but, which, instead of con- 
taining gunpowder, was supposed to be charged with laudanum. 
A strange, apostolic whim having seized him, he had left Neskyeuna 
for Nantucket, where, with that cunning peculiar to craziness, he as- 
sumed a steady, common-sense exterior, and offered himself as a 
green-hand candidate for the Jeroboams whaling voyage. They en- 
gaged him ; but straightway upon the ship’s getting out of sight of land, 
his insanity broke out in a‘ freshet. He announced himself as the 
archangel Gabriel, and commanded the captain to jump overboard. 
He published his manifesto, whereby he set himself forth as the de- 
liverer of the isles of the sea and vicar-general of all Oceanica. The 
unflinching earnestness with which he declared these things; — the 
dark, daring play of his sleepless, excited imagination, and all the 
preternatural terrors’ of real delirium, united to invest this Gabriel in 
th3 minds of the majority of the ignorant crew, with an atmosphere of 
sacredness. Moreover, they were afraid of him. As such a man, 
however, was not of much practical use in the ship, especially as he 
refused to work except when he pleased, the incredulous captain 
would fain have been rid of him; but apprised that that individual’s 
intention was ter land him in the first convenient port, the archangel 
forthwith opened all his seals and vials — devoting the ship and all 
hands to unconditional perdition, in case this intention was carried 
out. So strongly did he work upon his disciples among the crew, that 
at last in a* body they went to the captain and told him if Gabriel was 
sent from the ship^ not a man of them would remain. He was there- 
fore forced to relinquish his plan. Nor would they permit Gabriel 
to be any way maltreated, say or do what he would; so that it came 
to pass that Gabriel had the complete freedom of the ship. The 
consequence of all this was, that the archangel cared little or nothing 
for the captain and mates; and since the epidemic had broken out 
he carried a higher hand than ever; declaring that the plague, as he 
called it, was his sole command; nor should it be stayed but accord- 
ing to his good pleasure. The sailors, mostly poor devils, cringed, 
