Benito Cereno-1-1

Benito Cereno

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IN THE YEAR 1799, CAPTAIN Amasa Delano, of Duxbury, in Massachusetts,commanding a large sealer and general trader, lay at anchor with avaluable cargo, in the harbor of St. Maria—a small, desert, uninhabitedisland toward the southern extremity of the long coast of Chili. Therehe had touched for water.

On the second day, not long after dawn, while lying in his berth, hismate came below, informing him that a strange sail was coming into thebay. Ships were then not so plenty in those waters as now. He rose,dressed, and went on deck.

The morning was one peculiar to that coast. Everything was mute andcalm; everything gray. The sea, though undulated into long roods ofswells, seemed fixed, and was sleeked at the surface like waved leadthat has cooled and set in the sme……