{"id":"01KG6YHAXA6CNP4HXDK8K5VPNN","cid":"bafkreiffwk3u5fpqgvma6zx2qrplksrnq5j5wq3neaqasvsfln6tpjpd7u","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2501,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.409Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":2442,"text":"negro the repute of making the most pleasing body-servant in the world;\r\none, too, whom a master need be on no stiffly superior terms with, but\r\nmay treat with familiar trust; less a servant than a devoted companion.\r\n\r\nMarking the noisy indocility of the blacks in general, as well as what\r\nseemed the sullen inefficiency of the whites it was not without humane\r\nsatisfaction that Captain Delano witnessed the steady good conduct of\r\nBabo.\r\n\r\nBut the good conduct of Babo, hardly more than the ill-behavior of\r\nothers, seemed to withdraw the half-lunatic Don Benito from his cloudy\r\nlanguor. Not that such precisely was the impression made by the\r\nSpaniard on the mind of his visitor. The Spaniard’s individual unrest\r\nwas, for the present, but noted as a conspicuous feature in the ship’s\r\ngeneral affliction. Still, Captain Delano was not a little concerned at\r\nwhat he could not help taking for the time to be Don Benito’s\r\nunfriendly indifference towards himself. The Spaniard’s manner, too,\r\nconveyed a sort of sour and gloomy disdain, which he seemed at no pains\r\nto disguise. But this the American in charity ascribed to the harassing\r\neffects of sickness, since, in former instances, he had noted that\r\nthere are peculiar natures on whom prolonged physical suffering seems\r\nto cancel every social instinct of kindness; as if, forced to black\r\nbread themselves, they deemed it but equity that each person coming\r\nnigh them should, indirectly, by some slight or affront, be made to\r\npartake of their fare.\r\n\r\nBut ere long Captain Delano bethought him that, indulgent as he was at\r\nthe first, in judging the Spaniard, he might not, after all, have\r\nexercised charity enough. At bottom it was Don Benito’s reserve which\r\ndispleased him; but the same reserve was shown towards all but his\r\nfaithful personal attendant. Even the formal reports which, according\r\nto sea-usage, were, at stated times, made to him by some petty\r\nunderling, either a white, mulatto or black, he hardly had patience\r\nenough to listen to, without betraying contemptuous aversion. His\r\nmanner upon such occasions was, in its degree, not unlike that which\r\nmight be supposed to have been his imperial countryman’s, Charles V.,\r\njust previous to the anchoritish retirement of that monarch from the\r\nthrone.\r\n\r\nThis splenetic disrelish of his place was evinced in almost every\r\nfunction pertaining to it. Proud as he was moody, he condescended to no\r\npersonal mandate. Whatever special orders were necessary, their\r\ndelivery was delegated to his body-servant, who in turn transferred\r\nthem to their ultimate destination, through runners, alert Spanish boys\r\nor slave boys, like pages or pilot-fish within easy call continually\r\nhovering round Don Benito. So that to have beheld this undemonstrative\r\ninvalid gliding about, apathetic and mute, no landsman could have\r\ndreamed that in him was lodged a dictatorship beyond which, while at\r\nsea, there was no earthly appeal.\r\n\r\nThus, the Spaniard, regarded in his reserve, seemed the involuntary\r\nvictim of mental disorder. But, in fact, his reserve might, in some\r\ndegree, have proceeded from design. If so, then here was evinced the\r\nunhealthy climax of that icy though conscientious policy, more or less\r\nadopted by all commanders of large ships, which, except in signal\r\nemergencies, obliterates alike the manifestation of sway with every\r\ntrace of sociality; transforming the man into a block, or rather into a\r\nloaded cannon, which, until there is call for thunder, has nothing to\r\nsay.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGB7Z3K8B6BYJGR83VQN5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHAXACGP6X2M1A29YWZ71","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHAXAFZD4BBZRZ32AWM55","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:58.058Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:03.650Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}