{"id":"01KJNXJR04PEAJ3Q93AY2GPTPH","cid":"bafkreiem6dckbs4xtjspkbpe2shep6er5f3jlm46nk6q4a6q4xpuo5q3gi","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":569800,"char_start":561847,"chunk_index":79,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1989,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"under the long-flung shadow, and the snug patronising lee of churches.\r\nFor by some curious fatality, as it is often noted of your metropolitan\r\nfreebooters that they ever encamp around the halls of justice, so\r\nsinners, gentlemen, most abound in holiest vicinities.\r\n\r\n“‘Is that a friar passing?’ said Don Pedro, looking downwards into the\r\ncrowded plazza, with humorous concern.\r\n\r\n“‘Well for our northern friend, Dame Isabella’s Inquisition wanes in\r\nLima,’ laughed Don Sebastian. ‘Proceed, Senor.’\r\n\r\n“‘A moment! Pardon!’ cried another of the company. ‘In the name of all\r\nus Limeese, I but desire to express to you, sir sailor, that we have by\r\nno means overlooked your delicacy in not substituting present Lima for\r\ndistant Venice in your corrupt comparison. Oh! do not bow and look\r\nsurprised; you know the proverb all along this coast—“Corrupt as Lima.”\r\nIt but bears out your saying, too; churches more plentiful than\r\nbilliard-tables, and for ever open—and “Corrupt as Lima.” So, too,\r\nVenice; I have been there; the holy city of the blessed evangelist, St.\r\nMark!—St. Dominic, purge it! Your cup! Thanks: here I refill; now, you\r\npour out again.’\r\n\r\n“Freely depicted in his own vocation, gentlemen, the Canaller would\r\nmake a fine dramatic hero, so abundantly and picturesquely wicked is\r\nhe. Like Mark Antony, for days and days along his green-turfed, flowery\r\nNile, he indolently floats, openly toying with his red-cheeked\r\nCleopatra, ripening his apricot thigh upon the sunny deck. But ashore,\r\nall this effeminacy is dashed. The brigandish guise which the Canaller\r\nso proudly sports; his slouched and gaily-ribboned hat betoken his\r\ngrand features. A terror to the smiling innocence of the villages\r\nthrough which he floats; his swart visage and bold swagger are not\r\nunshunned in cities. Once a vagabond on his own canal, I have received\r\ngood turns from one of these Canallers; I thank him heartily; would\r\nfain be not ungrateful; but it is often one of the prime redeeming\r\nqualities of your man of violence, that at times he has as stiff an arm\r\nto back a poor stranger in a strait, as to plunder a wealthy one. In\r\nsum, gentlemen, what the wildness of this canal life is, is\r\nemphatically evinced by this; that our wild whale-fishery contains so\r\nmany of its most finished graduates, and that scarce any race of\r\nmankind, except Sydney men, are so much distrusted by our whaling\r\ncaptains. Nor does it at all diminish the curiousness of this matter,\r\nthat to many thousands of our rural boys and young men born along its\r\nline, the probationary life of the Grand Canal furnishes the sole\r\ntransition between quietly reaping in a Christian corn-field, and\r\nrecklessly ploughing the waters of the most barbaric seas.\r\n\r\n“‘I see! I see!’ impetuously exclaimed Don Pedro, spilling his chicha\r\nupon his silvery ruffles. ‘No need to travel! The world’s one Lima. I\r\nhad thought, now, that at your temperate North the generations were\r\ncold and holy as the hills.—But the story.’\r\n\r\n“I left off, gentlemen, where the Lakeman shook the backstay. Hardly\r\nhad he done so, when he was surrounded by the three junior mates and\r\nthe four harpooneers, who all crowded him to the deck. But sliding down\r\nthe ropes like baleful comets, the two Canallers rushed into the\r\nuproar, and sought to drag their man out of it towards the forecastle.\r\nOthers of the sailors joined with them in this attempt, and a twisted\r\nturmoil ensued; while standing out of harm’s way, the valiant captain\r\ndanced up and down with a whale-pike, calling upon his officers to\r\nmanhandle that atrocious scoundrel, and smoke him along to the\r\nquarter-deck. At intervals, he ran close up to the revolving border of\r\nthe confusion, and prying into the heart of it with his pike, sought to\r\nprick out the object of his resentment. But Steelkilt and his\r\ndesperadoes were too much for them all; they succeeded in gaining the\r\nforecastle deck, where, hastily slewing about three or four large casks\r\nin a line with the windlass, these sea-Parisians entrenched themselves\r\nbehind the barricade.\r\n\r\n“‘Come out of that, ye pirates!’ roared the captain, now menacing them\r\nwith a pistol in each hand, just brought to him by the steward. ‘Come\r\nout of that, ye cut-throats!’\r\n\r\n“Steelkilt leaped on the barricade, and striding up and down there,\r\ndefied the worst the pistols could do; but gave the captain to\r\nunderstand distinctly, that his (Steelkilt’s) death would be the signal\r\nfor a murderous mutiny on the part of all hands. Fearing in his heart\r\nlest this might prove but too true, the captain a little desisted, but\r\nstill commanded the insurgents instantly to return to their duty.\r\n\r\n“‘Will you promise not to touch us, if we do?’ demanded their\r\nringleader.\r\n\r\n“‘Turn to! turn to!—I make no promise;—to your duty! Do you want to\r\nsink the ship, by knocking off at a time like this? Turn to!’ and he\r\nonce more raised a pistol.\r\n\r\n“‘Sink the ship?’ cried Steelkilt. ‘Aye, let her sink. Not a man of us\r\nturns to, unless you swear not to raise a rope-yarn against us. What\r\nsay ye, men?’ turning to his comrades. A fierce cheer was their\r\nresponse.\r\n\r\n“The Lakeman now patrolled the barricade, all the while keeping his eye\r\non the Captain, and jerking out such sentences as these:—‘It’s not our\r\nfault; we didn’t want it; I told him to take his hammer away; it was\r\nboy’s business; he might have known me before this; I told him not to\r\nprick the buffalo; I believe I have broken a finger here against his\r\ncursed jaw; ain’t those mincing knives down in the forecastle there,\r\nmen? look to those handspikes, my hearties. Captain, by God, look to\r\nyourself; say the word; don’t be a fool; forget it all; we are ready to\r\nturn to; treat us decently, and we’re your men; but we won’t be\r\nflogged.’\r\n\r\n“‘Turn to! I make no promises, turn to, I say!’\r\n\r\n“‘Look ye, now,’ cried the Lakeman, flinging out his arm towards him,\r\n‘there are a few of us here (and I am one of them) who have shipped for\r\nthe cruise, d’ye see; now as you well know, sir, we can claim our\r\ndischarge as soon as the anchor is down; so we don’t want a row; it’s\r\nnot our interest; we want to be peaceable; we are ready to work, but we\r\nwon’t be flogged.’\r\n\r\n“‘Turn to!’ roared the Captain.\r\n\r\n“Steelkilt glanced round him a moment, and then said:—‘I tell you what\r\nit is now, Captain, rather than kill ye, and be hung for such a shabby\r\nrascal, we won’t lift a hand against ye unless ye attack us; but till\r\nyou say the word about not flogging us, we don’t do a hand’s turn.’\r\n\r\n“‘Down into the forecastle then, down with ye, I’ll keep ye there till\r\nye’re sick of it. Down ye go.’\r\n\r\n“‘Shall we?’ cried the ringleader to his men. Most of them were against\r\nit; but at length, in obedience to Steelkilt, they preceded him down\r\ninto their dark den, growlingly disappearing, like bears into a cave.\r\n\r\n“As the Lakeman’s bare head was just level with the planks, the Captain\r\nand his posse leaped the barricade, and rapidly drawing over the slide\r\nof the scuttle, planted their group of hands upon it, and loudly called\r\nfor the steward to bring the heavy brass padlock belonging to the\r\ncompanionway. Then opening the slide a little, the Captain whispered\r\nsomething down the crack, closed it, and turned the key upon them—ten\r\nin number—leaving on deck some twenty or more, who thus far had\r\nremained neutral.\r\n\r\n“All night a wide-awake watch was kept by all the officers, forward and\r\naft, especially about the forecastle scuttle and fore hatchway; at\r\nwhich last place it was feared the insurgents might emerge, after\r\nbreaking through the bulkhead below. But the hours of darkness passed\r\nin peace; the men who still remained at their duty toiling hard at the\r\npumps, whose clinking and clanking at intervals through the dreary\r\nnight dismally resounded through the ship.\r\n\r\n“At sunrise the Captain went forward, and knocking on the deck,\r\nsummoned the prisoners to work; but with a yell they refused."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.780Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.780Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KJ6WPT018SDDANE6N7Q8E428"}}