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(yīng)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?zāi)切┨诫U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(chǔ)。

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(guān)系中，殖民關(guān)系占絕對的主導(dǎo)地位，與南美的秘魯、智利和玻利維亞也是如此。