This chapter struck my interest because Ishmael asks us, the reader, to pay attention to the history that has formed the island of Nantucket. “Look now,” he says, “ at the wondrous traditional story of how this island was settled by the red men.” (Pg 69) Like the earlier chapter, Melville keeps reminding us that there is a history here that far surpasses the establishment of the American nation. I find these constant reminders interesting because some of the earlier literature regarding the colonizing of the new world would have the reader believe that the land that settlers “discovered” was untouched and not being put to any kind of use. Melville constantly endeavors to remind us that it has been inhabited for hundreds of years. So much so that the native people have legends to explain how they came to discover the island of Nantucket. He further confirms the claim of the people of the island, not just to the land but to the sea itself. “They first caught crabs quohogs in the sand; grown bolder, they waded out with nets for mackerel; more experienced, they pushed of in boats and captured cod; and at last, launching a navy of great ships on the sea, explored this watery world; …”(pg 70). I bring attention to this quote because this description almost seems to describe a reverse evolution that slowly takes the locals of the island back to the sea as they adapt to survive it. Melville makes it clear that for a long time, the people of this island have become masters of the sea through their historical acquaintance with it. He likens it much to other historically distinguished empires like the roman empire. Considering how in his essay, The American Scholar, Emerson calls on scholars to stop looking towards Europe for inspiration, Melville seems to respond to this by making it clear that if we must look to the past, let us look to the past of this land and the past of the people that have long inhabited this land, for they were as great a people as those from across the ocean.