How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
…concerning the tortoises found here, most mariners have long cherished a superstition, not more frightful than grotesque. They earnestly believe that all wicked sea-officers…are at death (and , in some cases, before death) transformed into tortoises; thenceforth dwelling upon these hot aridities… (5.15)
The turtles aren't exiles; the Galapagos is their home and they crawl about there happily. But precisely because they are happy turtles at home, they seem alien to the sailors from far away. So the sailors imagine that the most exiled an exile could be would be to be a turtle, at home in this strange place.
Quote #5
In the like deceptive vapors she at last struck upon a reef, whence ensued a long series of calamities too sad to detail. (5.56)
Melville is describing a ship that got lost along the coast of Peru and Chile. The tale of the exiled ship is so sad that Melville won't even tell it's story—he abandons the ship himself. It's not only exiled from its home, but from the story. It disappears into the fog, where neither rescuers nor readers can ever find it.
Quote #6
Doubtless for a long time the exiled monarch, pensively ruralizing in Peru…watched every arrival from the Encantadas, to hear news of the failure of the Republic. (5.102)
This is about the ruler of Charles's Island, who was overthrown and forced to flee. It's a kind of parody of exile; like Bartleby in the lawyer's rooms, the island wasn't exactly the king's home. He just adopted it as his own, and then got forced out. Being kicked out of some place that isn't even yours to begin with lacks the nobility of a real king's exile. It's sort of pitiful and sad—and Melville is more poking fun at the exile here than sympathizing with it.