338 MOBY DICK; OR 
across from the nearest point of the Mediterranean coast. How is 
that ? 
But was there no other way for the whale to land the prophet within 
that short distance of Nineveh? Yes. He might have carried him 
round by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. But not to speak of the 
passage through the whole length of the Mediterranean, and another 
passage up the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, such a supposition would 
involve the complete circumnavigation of all Africa in three days, not 
to speak of the Tigris waters, near the site of Nineveh, being too shal- 
low for any whale to swim in. Besides, this idea of Jonah’s weath- 
ering the Cape of Good Hope at so early a day would wrest the honour 
of the discovery of that great headland from Bartholomew Diaz, its 
reputed discoverer, and so make modern history a liar. 
But all these foolish arguments of old Sag-Harbour only evinced 
his foolish pride of reason — a thing still more reprehensible in him, 
seeing that he had but little learning except what he had picked up from 
the sun and the sea. I say it only shows his foolish, impious pride, 
and abominable, devilish rebellion against the reverend clergy. Por 
by a Portuguese Catholic priest, this very idea of Jonah’s going to 
Nineveh via the Cape of Good Hope was advanced as a signal magni- 
fication of the general miracle. And so it was. Besides, to this day, 
the highly enlightened Turks devoutly believe in the historical story 
of Jonah. And some three centuries ago, an English traveller in old 
Harris’s Voyages , speaks of a Turkish Mosque built in honour Gf 
Jonah, in which mosque was a miraculous lamp that burned without 
any oil. 
CHAPTER LXXXIII 
PITCHPOLING 
To make them run easily and swiftly the axles of carriages are 
anointed; and for much the same purpose, some whalers perform an 
analogous operation upon their boat; they grease the bottom. Nor is it 
to be doubted that as such a procedure can do no harm, it may possibly 
be of no contemptible advantage ; considering that oil and water are 
