英語聽書《白鯨記》 第133期

Why did Britain between the years 1750 and 1788pay to her whalemen in bounties upwards ofL1,000,000?

如今歐美的兵艦在那些地方縱橫馳騁，他們大約應該為早期的開發(fā)者、探路人—捕鯨者—鳴炮致意吧!

And lastly, how comes it that we whalemen ofAmerica now outnumber all the rest of the bandedwhalemen in the world; sail a navy of upwards ofseven hundred vessels;

人們盡可以去歌頌那些探險家、旅行家，在我個人心目中，最偉大的卻是早期捕鯨船上的那些船長們。

manned by eighteen thousand men; yearly consuming 4,000,000 of dollars; the ships worth, atthe time of sailing, 20,000,000!

他們幾乎是赤手空拳地踏足于文明未至的蠻荒之地，荒礁野灘，危機四伏，他們勇敢地迎接了那一切。

and every year importing into our harbors a well reaped harvest of 7,000,000. How comes allthis, if there be not something puissant in whaling?

當然，南塔開特人一如既往，為了捕鯨，他們寧可面對如他們的祖先所面對的那些原始的恐怖和危險，而義無反顧。

But this is not the half; look again. I freely assert, that the cosmopolite philosopher cannot, forhis life, point out one single peaceful influence,

正是捕鯨船打破了舊西班牙殖民主義在這些地區(qū)的鐵幕，為這些地區(qū)民主政體的建立奠定了基礎。

which within the last sixty years has operated more potentially upon the whole broad world,taken in one aggregate, than the high and mighty business of whaling.

在捕鯨業(yè)發(fā)達以前，在歐洲與非洲的合恩角的關系中，殖民關系占絕對的主導地位，與南美的秘魯、智利和玻利維亞也是如此。