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1"'Canallers!' cried Don Pedro. 'We have seen many whale-ships in our harbours, but never heard of your Canallers.
2Pardon: who and what are they?' "'Canallers, Don, are the boatmen belonging to our grand Erie Canal. You must have heard
3of it.' "'Nay, Senor; hereabouts in this dull, warm, most lazy, and hereditary land, we know but little of your vigorous
4North.' "'Aye? Well then, Don, refill my cup. Your chicha's very fine; and ere proceeding further I will tell ye what
5our Canallers are; for such information may throw side-light upon my story.' "For three hundred and sixty miles,
6gentlemen, through the entire breadth of the state of New York; through numerous populous cities and most thriving
7villages; through long, dismal, uninhabited swamps, and affluent, cultivated fields, unrivalled for fertility; by
8billiard-room and bar-room; through the holy-of-holies of great forests; on Roman arches over Indian rivers; through sun
9and shade; by happy hearts or broken; through all the wide contrasting scenery of those noble Mohawk counties; and
10especially, by rows of snow-white chapels, whose spires stand almost like milestones, flows one continual stream of
11Venetianly corrupt and often lawless life. There's your true Ashantee, gentlemen; there howl your pagans; where you ever
12find them, next door to you; under the long-flung shadow, and the snug patronising lee of churches. For by some curious
13fatality, as it is often noted of your metropolitan freebooters that they ever encamp around the halls of justice, so
14sinners, gentlemen, most abound in holiest vicinities. "'Is that a friar passing?' said Don Pedro, looking downwards
15into the crowded plazza, with humorous concern. "'Well for our northern friend, Dame Isabella's Inquisition wanes in
16Lima,' laughed Don Sebastian. 'Proceed, Senor.' "'A moment! Pardon!' cried another of the company. 'In the name of all
17us Limeese, I but desire to express to you, sir sailor, that we have by no means overlooked your delicacy in not
18substituting present Lima for distant Venice in your corrupt comparison. Oh! do not bow and look surprised; you know the
19proverb all along this coast--"Corrupt as Lima." It but bears out your saying, too; churches more plentiful than
20billiard-tables, and for ever open--and "Corrupt as Lima." So, too, Venice; I have been there; the holy city of the
21blessed evangelist, St. Mark!--St. Dominic, purge it! Your cup! Thanks: here I refill; now, you pour out again.' "Freely
22depicted in his own vocation, gentlemen, the Canaller would make a fine dramatic hero, so abundantly and picturesquely
23wicked is he. Like Mark Antony, for days and days along his green-turfed, flowery Nile, he indolently floats, openly
24toying with his red-cheeked Cleopatra, ripening his apricot thigh upon the sunny deck. But ashore, all this effeminacy
25is dashed. The brigandish guise which the Canaller so proudly sports; his slouched and gaily-ribboned hat betoken his
26grand features. A terror to the smiling innocence of the villages through which he floats; his swart visage and bold
27swagger are not unshunned in cities. Once a vagabond on his own canal, I have received good turns from one of these
28Canallers; I thank him heartily; would fain be not ungrateful; but it is often one of the prime redeeming qualities of
29your man of violence, that at times he has as stiff an arm to back a poor stranger in a strait, as to plunder a wealthy
30one. In sum, gentlemen, what the wildness of this canal life is, is emphatically evinced by this; that our wild
31whale-fishery contains so many of its most finished graduates, and that scarce any race of mankind, except Sydney men,
32are so much distrusted by our whaling captains. Nor does it at all diminish the curiousness of this matter, that to many
33thousands of our rural boys and young men born along its line, the probationary life of the Grand Canal furnishes the
34sole transition between quietly reaping in a Christian corn-field, and recklessly ploughing the waters of the most
35barbaric seas. "'I see! I see!' impetuously exclaimed Don Pedro, spilling his chicha upon his silvery ruffles. 'No need
36to travel! The world's one Lima. I had thought, now, that at your temperate North the generations were cold and holy as
37the hills.--But the story.' "I left off, gentlemen, where the Lakeman shook the backstay. Hardly had he done so, when he
38was surrounded by the three junior mates and the four harpooneers, who all crowded him to the deck. But sliding down the
39ropes like baleful comets, the two Canallers rushed into the uproar, and sought to drag their man out of it towards the
40forecastle. Others of the sailors joined with them in this attempt, and a twisted turmoil ensued; while standing out of
41harm's way, the valiant captain danced up and down with a whale-pike, calling upon his officers to manhandle that
42atrocious scoundrel, and smoke him along to the quarter-deck. At intervals, he ran close up to the revolving border of
43the confusion, and prying into the heart of it with his pike, sought to prick out the object of his resentment. But
44Steelkilt and his desperadoes were too much for them all; they succeeded in gaining the forecastle deck, where, hastily
45slewing about three or four large casks in a line with the windlass, these sea-Parisians entrenched themselves behind
46the barricade. "'Come out of that, ye pirates!' roared the captain, now menacing them with a pistol in each hand, just
47brought to him by the steward. 'Come out of that, ye cut-throats!' "Steelkilt leaped on the barricade, and striding up
48and down there, defied the worst the pistols could do; but gave the captain to understand distinctly, that his
49(Steelkilt's) death would be the signal for a murderous mutiny on the part of all hands. Fearing in his heart lest this
50might prove but too true, the captain a little desisted, but still commanded the insurgents instantly to return to their
51duty. "'Will you promise not to touch us, if we do?' demanded their ringleader. "'Turn to! turn to!--I make no
52promise;--to your duty! Do you want to sink the ship, by knocking off at a time like this? Turn to!' and he once more
53raised a pistol. "'Sink the ship?' cried Steelkilt. 'Aye, let her sink. Not a man of us turns to, unless you swear not
54to raise a rope-yarn against us. What say ye, men?' turning to his comrades. A fierce cheer was their response. "The
55Lakeman now patrolled the barricade, all the while keeping his eye on the Captain, and jerking out such sentences as
56these:--'It's not our fault; we didn't want it; I told him to take his hammer away; it was boy's business; he might have
57known me before this; I told him not to prick the buffalo; I believe I have broken a finger here against his cursed jaw;
58ain't those mincing knives down in the forecastle there, men? look to those handspikes, my hearties. Captain, by God,
59look to yourself; say the word; don't be a fool; forget it all; we are ready to turn to; treat us decently, and we're
60your men; but we won't be flogged.' "'Turn to! I make no promises, turn to, I say!' "'Look ye, now,' cried the Lakeman,
61flinging out his arm towards him, 'there are a few of us here (and I am one of them) who have shipped for the cruise,
62d'ye see; now as you well know, sir, we can claim our discharge as soon as the anchor is down; so we don't want a row;
63it's not our interest; we want to be peaceable; we are ready to work, but we won't be flogged.' "'Turn to!' roared the
64Captain. "Steelkilt glanced round him a moment, and then said:--'I tell you what it is now, Captain, rather than kill
65ye, and be hung for such a shabby rascal, we won't lift a hand against ye unless ye attack us; but till you say the word
66about not flogging us, we don't do a hand's turn.' "'Down into the forecastle then, down with ye, I'll keep ye there
67till ye're sick of it. Down ye go.' "'Shall we?' cried the ringleader to his men. Most of them were against it; but at
68length, in obedience to Steelkilt, they preceded him down into their dark den, growlingly disappearing, like bears into
69a cave. "As the Lakeman's bare head was just level with the planks, the Captain and his posse leaped the barricade, and
70rapidly drawing over the slide of the scuttle, planted their group of hands upon it, and loudly called for the steward
71to bring the heavy brass padlock belonging to the companionway. Then opening the slide a little, the Captain whispered
72something down the crack, closed it, and turned the key upon them--ten in number--leaving on deck some twenty or more,
73who thus far had remained neutral.
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