Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART FIRST: THE SILVER OF THE MINE 8. CHAPTER EIGHT (continued)

No doubt the initial action of Charles Gould had been helped at
the beginning by a period of comparative peace which occurred
just about that time; and also by the general softening of
manners as compared with the epoch of civil wars whence had
emerged the iron tyranny of Guzman Bento of fearful memory. In
the contests that broke out at the end of his rule (which had
kept peace in the country for a whole fifteen years) there was
more fatuous imbecility, plenty of cruelty and suffering still,
but much less of the old-time fierce and blindly ferocious
political fanaticism. It was all more vile, more base, more
contemptible, and infinitely more manageable in the very
outspoken cynicism of motives. It was more clearly a
brazen-faced scramble for a constantly diminishing quantity of
booty; since all enterprise had been stupidly killed in the land.
Thus it came to pass that the province of Sulaco, once the field
of cruel party vengeances, had become in a way one of the
considerable prizes of political career. The great of the earth
(in Sta. Marta) reserved the posts in the old Occidental State to
those nearest and dearest to them: nephews, brothers, husbands
of favourite sisters, bosom friends, trusty supporters--or
prominent supporters of whom perhaps they were afraid. It was the
blessed province of great opportunities and of largest salaries;
for the San Tome mine had its own unofficial pay list, whose
items and amounts, fixed in consultation by Charles Gould and
Senor Avellanos, were known to a prominent business man in the
United States, who for twenty minutes or so in every month gave
his undivided attention to Sulaco affairs. At the same time the
material interests of all sorts, backed up by the influence of
the San Tome mine, were quietly gathering substance in that part
of the Republic. If, for instance, the Sulaco Collectorship was
generally understood, in the political world of the capital, to
open the way to the Ministry of Finance, and so on for every
official post, then, on the other hand, the despondent business
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 necessary 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."