In truth, well nigh the whole of this passage being attended by very prosperous breezes, the Town-Ho had all but certainly arrived in perfect safety at her port without the occurrence of the least fatality, had it not been for the brutal overbearing of Radney, the mate, a Vineyarder, and the bitterly provoked vengeance of Steelkilt, a Lakeman and desperado from Buffalo.
事实上，整个航程差不多都刮着顺适的和风，如果不是那个维因耶德人的大副拉德尼狂妄傲慢，同那个布法罗(这里的湖即指伊利湖。布法罗(在纽约西部的一个市)是伊利湖上的商港。)的湖上人，那个恶棍斯蒂尔基尔特激起复仇之念的话，那么‘大鲸出来了号’，随便怎样都不会遭到一点意外，一定能够绝对安全地抵达口岸。”
"Lakeman! Buffalo! Pray, what is a Lakeman, and where is Buffalo?' said Don Sebastian, rising in his swinging mat of grass.
“湖上人！野牛！请问，什么叫做湖上人，野牛又是什么地方？塞瓦斯蒂安先生从他那摇摇摆摆的草垫子上立起来问道。
On the eastern shore of our Lake Erie, Don; but - I crave your courtesy - may be, you shall soon hear further of all that. Now, gentlemen, in square - sail brigs and three-masted ships, well nigh as large and stout as any that ever sailed out of your old Callao to far Manilla; this Lakeman, in the land-locked heart of our America, had yet been nurtured by all those agrarian freebooting impressions popularly connected with the open ocean. For in their interflowing aggregate, those grand fresh-water seas of ours, Erie, and Ontario, and Huron, andSuperior, and Michigan, possess an ocean-like expansiveness, with many of the ocean's noblest traits; with many of its rimmed varieties of races and of climes."
“先生，那是在我们的伊利湖的东岸。不过——我请你原谅一下——也许你马上就可以全部都听到了。诸位先生，且说那种横帆二桅船和三桅船，就跟随便哪一艘从你们的古老的卡亚俄(卡亚俄——秘鲁的主要商港。)驶到老远的马尼拉的那种船差不多，又大又结实。这个湖上人，虽然生在我们美国那种四面着陆的中心，却又是受过那种爱把大海看做可以抢劫的农民观念所熏陶的。因为我们那些淡水大海——伊利湖，安大略湖，休伦湖，苏必利尔湖和密歇根湖——在它们合流的时候，就有一种象大洋似的滔滔气派，有大洋许多最高贵的特点，有各式各样相似的人种和风土习俗。