英语听书《白鲸记》 第133期

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

如今欧美的兵舰在那些地方纵横驰骋，他们大约应该为早期的开发者、探路人—捕鲸者—鸣炮致意吧!

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;

人们尽可以去歌颂那些探险家、旅行家，在我个人心目中，最伟大的却是早期捕鲸船上的那些船长们。

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

他们几乎是赤手空拳地踏足于文明未至的蛮荒之地，荒礁野滩，危机四伏，他们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?

当然，南塔开特人一如既往，为了捕鲸，他们宁可面对如他们的祖先所面对的那些原始的恐怖和危险，而义无反顾。

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

正是捕鲸船打破了旧西班牙殖民主义在这些地区的铁幕，为这些地区民主政体的建立奠定了基础。

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.

在捕鲸业发达以前，在欧洲与非洲的合恩角的关系中，殖民关系占绝对的主导地位，与南美的秘鲁、智利和玻利维亚也是如此。