Not P but Moby-Dick (43)

[Michael Bailey]

Re Inquisition:
It was declared by the Spanish monarchs in 1478 Ferdinand of Aragon and
Isabella of Castile.


The Spanish Inquisition was suppressed by Joseph Bonaparte
<https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Bonaparte> in 1808, restored by
 Ferdinand VII <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ferdinand-VII>in 1814,
suppressed in 1820, and restored in 1823. It was finally suppressed
permanently by Spanish queen regent María Cristina de Borbón
<https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maria-Cristina-de-Borbon> in 1834.


Melville was born in 1819; Ishmael refuses to say when all the action
happened (“never mind exactly when”) but the last sputtering remnants of
the Spanish Inquisition were apparently still, um, sputtering.