http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2701/270 ... m#2HCH0049



Ishmaeil is mildly taken aback by his first experience of a first hand encounter with a whale. Queequeg assures his it is not unfrequent that boats get smashed, sending their occupants into the deep. And so Ishmael enquires about this desperado business, and receives an affirmative reply to this rather difficult question.


The more experienced hands might have noted that whales do not fly, or that staying home in Nantucket might be more discreet. But no.


Therefore, his life in the hands of the prudent Starbuck, and the with terrifying tales of Moby Dick in prospect


Speaking as one who has already cheated his Maker
Desperado indeed, out on the wild seas. Perhaps the hyena is considered a desperado animal, I'm not sure, taking the universe for a joke, taking on lions, gobbling bullets like an ostrich. One discussion of this source is at http://desperadophilosophy.net/about/

And a desperate hyena