Page 139 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

circles of the Republic had come to consider the Occidental
Province as the promised land of safety, especially if a man
managed to get on good terms with the administration of
the mine. ‘Charles Gould; excellent fellow! Absolutely nec-
essary to make sure of him before taking a single step. Get
an introduction to him from Moraga if you can—the agent
of the King of Sulaco, don’t you know.’
No wonder, then, that Sir John, coming from Europe
to smooth the path for his railway, had been meeting the
name (and even the nickname) of Charles Gould at every
turn in Costaguana. The agent of the San Tome Adminis-
tration in Sta. Marta (a polished, well-informed gentleman,
Sir John thought him) had certainly helped so greatly in
bringing about the presidential tour that he began to think
that there was something in the faint whispers hinting at
the immense occult influence of the Gould Concession.
What was currently whispered was this—that the San Tome
Administration had, in part, at least, financed the last revo-
lution, which had brought into a five-year dictatorship Don
Vincente Ribiera, a man of culture and of unblemished
character, invested with a mandate of reform by the best el-
ements of the State. Serious, well-informed men seemed to
believe the fact, to hope for better things, for the establish-
ment of legality, of good faith and order in public life. So
much the better, then, thought Sir John. He worked always
on a great scale; there was a loan to the State, and a proj-
ect for systematic colonization of the Occidental Province,
involved in one vast scheme with the construction of the
National Central Railway. Good faith, order, honesty, peace,

1 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard