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1Hand in hand, ship and breeze blew on; but the breeze came faster than the ship, and soon the Pequod began to rock. By
2and by, through the glass the stranger's boats and manned mast-heads proved her a whale-ship. But as she was so far to
3windward, and shooting by, apparently making a passage to some other ground, the Pequod could not hope to reach her. So
4the signal was set to see what response would be made. Here be it said, that like the vessels of military marines, the
5ships of the American Whale Fleet have each a private signal; all which signals being collected in a book with the names
6of the respective vessels attached, every captain is provided with it. Thereby, the whale commanders are enabled to
7recognise each other upon the ocean, even at considerable distances and with no small facility. The Pequod's signal was
8at last responded to by the stranger's setting her own; which proved the ship to be the Jeroboam of Nantucket. Squaring
9her yards, she bore down, ranged abeam under the Pequod's lee, and lowered a boat; it soon drew nigh; but, as the
10side-ladder was being rigged by Starbuck's order to accommodate the visiting captain, the stranger in question waved his
11hand from his boat's stern in token of that proceeding being entirely unnecessary. It turned out that the Jeroboam had a
12malignant epidemic on board, and that Mayhew, her captain, was fearful of infecting the Pequod's company. For, though
13himself and boat's crew remained untainted, and though his ship was half a rifle-shot off, and an incorruptible sea and
14air rolling and flowing between; yet conscientiously adhering to the timid quarantine of the land, he peremptorily
15refused to come into direct contact with the Pequod. But this did by no means prevent all communications. Preserving an
16interval of some few yards between itself and the ship, the Jeroboam's boat by the occasional use of its oars contrived
17to keep parallel to the Pequod, as she heavily forged through the sea (for by this time it blew very fresh), with her
18main-topsail aback; though, indeed, at times by the sudden onset of a large rolling wave, the boat would be pushed some
19way ahead; but would be soon skilfully brought to her proper bearings again. Subject to this, and other the like
20interruptions now and then, a conversation was sustained between the two parties; but at intervals not without still
21another interruption of a very different sort. Pulling an oar in the Jeroboam's boat, was a man of a singular
22appearance, even in that wild whaling life where individual notabilities make up all totalities. He was a small, short,
23youngish man, sprinkled all over his face with freckles, and wearing redundant yellow hair. A long-skirted,
24cabalistically-cut coat of a faded walnut tinge enveloped him; the overlapping sleeves of which were rolled up on his
25wrists. A deep, settled, fanatic delirium was in his eyes. So soon as this figure had been first descried, Stubb had
26exclaimed--"That's he! that's he!--the long-togged scaramouch the Town-Ho's company told us of!" Stubb here alluded to a
27strange story told of the Jeroboam, and a certain man among her crew, some time previous when the Pequod spoke the
28Town-Ho. According to this account and what was subsequently learned, it seemed that the scaramouch in question had
29gained a wonderful ascendency over almost everybody in the Jeroboam. His story was this: He had been originally nurtured
30among the crazy society of Neskyeuna Shakers, where he had been a great prophet; in their cracked, secret meetings
31having several times descended from heaven by the way of a trap-door, announcing the speedy opening of the seventh vial,
32which he carried in his vest-pocket; but, which, instead of containing gunpowder, was supposed to be charged with
33laudanum. A strange, apostolic whim having seized him, he had left Neskyeuna for Nantucket, where, with that cunning
34peculiar to craziness, he assumed a steady, common-sense exterior, and offered himself as a green-hand candidate for the
35Jeroboam's whaling voyage. They engaged him; but straightway upon the ship's getting out of sight of land, his insanity
36broke out in a freshet. He announced himself as the archangel Gabriel, and commanded the captain to jump overboard. He
37published his manifesto, whereby he set himself forth as the deliverer of the isles of the sea and vicar-general of all
38Oceanica. The unflinching earnestness with which he declared these things;--the dark, daring play of his sleepless,
39excited imagination, and all the preternatural terrors of real delirium, united to invest this Gabriel in the minds of
40the majority of the ignorant crew, with an atmosphere of sacredness. Moreover, they were afraid of him. As such a man,
41however, was not of much practical use in the ship, especially as he refused to work except when he pleased, the
42incredulous captain would fain have been rid of him; but apprised that that individual's intention was to land him in
43the first convenient port, the archangel forthwith opened all his seals and vials--devoting the ship and all hands to
44unconditional perdition, in case this intention was carried out. So strongly did he work upon his disciples among the
45crew, 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
46would remain. He was therefore forced to relinquish his plan. Nor would they permit Gabriel to be any way maltreated,
47say or do what he would; so that it came to pass that Gabriel had the complete freedom of the ship. The consequence of
48all this was, that the archangel cared little or nothing for the captain and mates; and since the epidemic had broken
49out, he carried a higher hand than ever; declaring that the plague, as he called it, was at his sole command; nor should
50it be stayed but according to his good pleasure. The sailors, mostly poor devils, cringed, and some of them fawned
51before him; in obedience to his instructions, sometimes rendering him personal homage, as to a god. Such things may seem
52incredible; but, however wondrous, they are true. Nor is the history of fanatics half so striking in respect to the
53measureless self-deception of the fanatic himself, as his measureless power of deceiving and bedevilling so many others.
54But it is time to return to the Pequod. "I fear not thy epidemic, man," said Ahab from the bulwarks, to Captain Mayhew,
55who stood in the boat's stern; "come on board." But now Gabriel started to his feet. "Think, think of the fevers, yellow
56and bilious! Beware of the horrible plague!" "Gabriel! Gabriel!" cried Captain Mayhew; "thou must either--" But that
57instant a headlong wave shot the boat far ahead, and its seethings drowned all speech. "Hast thou seen the White Whale?"
58demanded Ahab, when the boat drifted back. "Think, think of thy whale-boat, stoven and sunk! Beware of the horrible
59tail!" "I tell thee again, Gabriel, that--" But again the boat tore ahead as if dragged by fiends. Nothing was said for
60some moments, while a succession of riotous waves rolled by, which by one of those occasional caprices of the seas were
61tumbling, not heaving it. Meantime, the hoisted sperm whale's head jogged about very violently, and Gabriel was seen
62eyeing it with rather more apprehensiveness than his archangel nature seemed to warrant. When this interlude was over,
63Captain Mayhew began a dark story concerning Moby Dick; not, however, without frequent interruptions from Gabriel,
64whenever his name was mentioned, and the crazy sea that seemed leagued with him.
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