“As master and man stood before him, the black upholding the white, Captain Delano could not but bethink him of the beauty of that relationship which could present such a spectacle of fidelity on the one hand and confidence on the other. The scene was heightened by the contrast in dress, denoting their relative positions. The Spaniard wore a loose Chili jacket of dark velvet; white small-clothes and stockings, with silver buckles at the knee and instep; a high-crowned sombrero, of fine grass; a slender sword, silver mounted, hung from a knot in his sash—the last being an almost invariable adjunct, more for utility than ornament, of a South American gentleman's dress to this hour. Excepting when his occasional nervous contortions brought about disarray, there was a certain precision in his attire curiously at variance with the unsightly disorder around; especially in the belittered Ghetto, forward of the main-mast, wholly occupied by the blacks.

The servant wore nothing but wide trowsers, apparently, from their coarseness and patches, made out of some old topsail; they were clean, and confined at the waist by a bit of unstranded rope, which, with his composed, deprecatory air at times, made him look something like a begging friar of St. Francis.” (45)

In this passage, Captain Delano's observations of Babo and Cereno's clothing (which has been entirely staged by Babo) shows us both the difference between the true plot and the unreliable narrator as well as highlighting exactly where his ideology impacts his reliability.  “As master and man stood before him, the black upholding the white, Captain Delano could not but bethink him of the beauty of that relationship which could present such a spectacle of fidelity on the one hand and confidence on the other.” In this introductory sentence to the paragraph, Melville is drawing direct attention to Delano's shortcomings, and allowing us to play detective. Delano's convoluted ideology is consumed by his presupposed relationship between black and white that all he can see is the radical contrasts between them. “Fidelity” and “Confidence” are two words which begin to trigger our unreliable narrator sensors: Delano himself is astonished at the supposed trust Cereno gives Babo, as he himself would not think a servant should be entrusted as much as Babo.

The description of the dress is where Captain Delano is thoroughly played by Babo. Babo has forced Cereno to dress in unnaturally fancy clothes of “...jacket of dark velvet; white small-clothes and stockings, with silver buckles at the knee and instep; a high-crowned sombrero, of fine grass; a slender sword, silver mounted, hung from a knot in his sash”. As in many other passages, here Babo is enjoying the theatrics and performance and almost teasing Cereno with the reversed power balance by dressing him in fine dress wear, as though even while at sea Cereno can show his status. Babo has even outfitted Cereno with a decorative sword scabbard (which Delano does not realize is empty). Delano himself isn't sure what to make of the sword, saying it is “an almost invariable adjunct” and it does not match the style-over-function attire of the Captain. Delano also notes “There was a certain precision in his attire curiously at variance with the unsightly disorder around”. Delano is unconsciously noticing how Babo has precisely crafted and staged a costume for Cereno to help sell his story.

Indeed Babo's pants are made from “some old topsoil”, another Sherlock moment in which the reader remembers the previous page where the sails were supposedly “torn asunder”. Babo's costume for himself is similarly over the top as his costume for Cereno; with his tied burlap shorts he is seen as Francsescan, which can be decoded as he is attempting to emulate Jesus himself. The passage as a whole draws attention to Babo's theatrics and the unreliability of Delano, while also reinforcing that it is his own ideological failures that prevent him from realizing the truth.