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Summary
After Cereno’s shave, Captain Delano senses that his presence is no longer welcome and heads back out onto the main deck. Babo soon follows and, with a hand to his cheek, reveals that Cereno cut him with the razor in order to get back at him for nicking him during his shave. This turn of events surprises Captain Delano, but the shock quickly wears off as he goes to lunch with Cereno. Although Cereno dismisses Francesco, the mixed-race man who serves them, he refuses to send Babo out of the room so that Captain Delano can speak with him privately. The combination of Cereno’s lack of cooperation and increasingly gloomy attitude frustrates Captain Delano. His good intentions, however, remain intact, and he makes his way to the deck in hopes of using the growing breeze to navigate the San Dominick closer to the Bachelor’s Delight. Babo even follows and helps him direct the slaves working to sail the ship.
Captain Delano continues to try to make conversation with Cereno but receives little-to-no response each time. He invites him to join him for coffee on the Bachelor’s Delight, insisting that this is the least he can do to thank him for the hospitality. All Cereno says in response is “I cannot go,” and Captain Delano begins to feel exasperated as a result. Despite his plans to review the details of the assistance he will provide to the San Dominick with Cereno, he vows to board his own ship as soon as it arrives. Captain Delano ultimately goes below deck to say goodbye to Cereno, passes Atufal who oddly seems to be standing guard, and watches as the San Dominick gets anchored to his own ship. As Captain Delano prepares to return to the Bachelor’s Delight, Cereno finally emerges from below deck to say goodbye. Babo seems anxious to end this exchange between the two captains, especially after noticing that Cereno cannot let go of Captain Delano’s hand.
Just as Captain Delano gets into his boat, Cereno leaps over the side of the San Dominick and falls at his feet. Babo, wielding a dagger, also jumps into the boat as the rest of the slaves look on. The crew of the Bachelor’s Delight stops Babo’s attack, but as they begin questioning Captain Delano about the identity of the strangers on board, he sees Babo discreetly pull out a smaller dagger and aim it at Cereno. This sight changes Captain Delano’s perspective, and he realizes that Babo intended to stab his master rather than himself. He sees all of the day’s strange events through a completely new lens. As the San Dominick escapes, the canvas falls away from the figurehead to reveal a human skeleton with the words “Follow Your Leader” crudely written underneath. Hopeless and despairing, Cereno identifies the skeleton as Aranda’s. Captain Delano ties Babo up, sends a boat to save three sailors struggling in the water, and fires a few gunshots at the fleeing ship. Cereno urges him, however, not to pursue the San Dominick as it would be impossible for them to defeat the mutineers. Captain Delano agrees not to lead an attack himself, but he insists on sending a group of his men to take back the San Dominick. Violence ensues, and while loss of life occurs on both sides, Captain Delano’s men ultimately succeed in capturing Cereno’s ship.
The rest of the narrative is comprised of Cereno’s court deposition, revealing more details about the San Dominick’s journey. He testifies that the ship, manned by a thirty-six-member crew, set sail loaded with goods and 160 slaves belonging to Alexandro Aranda. On the seventh day of their voyage, Babo and Atufal led the slaves in revolt, an event which resulted in the brutal deaths of many Spanish men. Babo demanded that Cereno sail toward Senegal and release them, but he conceded that the ship must stop at a port for supplies before making such a journey. Given its rather isolated location, Babo instructed Cereno to sail to the island of Santa Maria. Meanwhile, the slaves killed their owner, Aranda, and hung his corpse on the figurehead to serve as a warning to the other sailors. Babo gave the remaining crew members a warning each day about what would befall them if they plotted against him.
After seventy-three days at sea, the San Dominick finally arrived at Santa Maria and made contact with the Bachelor’s Delight. Babo gave Cereno and the other Spanish sailors a story to tell Captain Delano, and, in addition to threatening them with death, he pretended to be Cereno’s servant in order to ensure that nothing was given away. Babo even began plotting ways to capture Captain Delano’s ship, forcing Cereno to ask specific questions of their guest. Although Cereno grappled with his desire to tell Captain Delano the truth given Babo’s threats, he ultimately leapt into his boat in order to end the charade. At the end of the trial, Babo is executed and his head is placed on a stake in a public square. Cereno falls into a deep misery, and he dies a few months later.
Analysis
In the final pages of the story, the truth about the San Dominick ultimately emerges and shocks Captain Delano. Melville’s strategic use of symbols and foreshadowing, including an emphasis on grayness, surprising moments of aggression, and the knot scene, finally pays off as the reader, like Captain Delano, can finally interpret their meaning through the correct lens. The surprise he expresses in response to learning that Cereno, rather than himself, is the target of the slaves’ attack highlights the obliviousness that his fixed worldview causes. Given this outcome, Melville seems to expose the weaknesses of the American consciousness prior to the Civil War. Captain Delano is completely helpless when Cereno jumps into his boat, partially because his racial biases prevent him from considering anyone other than the Spanish captain as a threat. Alternatively, Cereno has lived through the mutiny on his ship and uses this firsthand information to act. His concern for the safety of Captain Delano and his crew finally sends him over the edge, both literally and metaphorically, into Captain Delano's boat. He knows that Babo is planning to capture Delano's ship while his men are on shore, and this information drives him to escape despite Babo's threat. On a big-picture level, the way in which Cereno, an emblem of the Old World’s knowledge, aims to protect Captain Delano, the embodiment of American idealism, seems almost like a warning against complacency or naïveté. Melville’s inclusion of Aranda’s skeleton perched atop the Christopher Columbus figurehead carries a similar symbolic meaning, calling attention to the destruction that awaits those following in the explorer’s domineering footsteps.
Once the surprise of both the attack itself and the twist ending wear off, Cereno’s deposition offers a clearer description of the events that unfolded throughout the course of the San Dominick’s journey. This legal testimony marks the first time in the story where the reader has access to a point of view other than Captain Delano’s, a shift that allows Melville to explore the racial dynamics on board more explicitly. Cereno’s description of the slave revolt, however, is no less biased than Captain Delano’s perspective as it is still a white man’s account of a Black man’s plan. As a result, the language that he uses throughout depicts the slaves as incredibly violent and manipulative. They murder dozens of men in their sleep, and Babo casually orders the death of their owner, Alexandro Aranda. At the same time, orchestrating this elaborate plot is merely a vehicle for achieving their primary goal of traveling to Senegal and finding freedom. The tension between the slaves’ tactics and their objective forces the reader to consider whether or not the revolt is justifiable, a question that Melville notably does not answer himself. Instead of offering either a pro-slavery or anti-slavery argument, he embraces the grayness and uncertainty that pervades the story and remains impartial. This strategy prevents the reader from relying on a provided answer, forcing them to grapple with the harsh realities of slavery on their own terms.
The last major detail that Melville provides at the end of the story is that Cereno is unable to recover from the shock of his experiences on board the San Dominick, one which further emphasizes the consequences of racial prejudice. Captain Delano asks Cereno what continues to cast such a "shadow" upon him now that he is safe from danger, and he gravely responds with "the Negro." The ambiguity of this exchange allows it to take on numerous symbolic meanings. In the most literal sense, Cereno’s response suggests that his mind has been ruined by the terrible ordeal that the slaves put him through. On a deeper level, the specific use of the word “shadow” seems to imply that the Black slaves have overtaken Cereno, causing him to feel inferior to the people he once viewed as beneath him. Babo’s intelligence in particular proves itself to be quite powerful throughout the course of the story as he possesses full control over Cereno and fools Captain Delano. This dynamic, which casts a metaphorical shadow over his own skin, ultimately clouds Cereno’s perception of who he is as a white man. The idea that Babo has more influence than Cereno informs the meaning of the final lines in the story. The narrator explains that not long after Babo was executed for his crimes, Cereno died in a monastery and “followed his leader” in death. Aranda’s final resting place, the vaults of St. Bartholomew’s church, is mentioned in passing, but the level of detail that goes into describing Babo’s death invites the reader to consider who Cereno’s true leader is. He could remain connected to his friend Aranda, or Babo’s influence could still maintain a hold on him, even in death. Ending the story on this unclear note reinforces Melville’s commitment to challenging the reader’s assumptions about race and power.
