 excellent Señor Mitchell« for the business and official world of
Sulaco; »Fussy Joe« for the commanders of the Company's ships, Captain Joseph
Mitchell prided himself on his profound knowledge of men and things in the
country - cosas de Costaguana. Amongst these last he accounted as most
unfavourable to the orderly working of his Company the frequent changes of
government brought about by revolutions of the military type.
    The political atmosphere of the Republic was generally stormy in these days.
The fugitive patriots of the defeated party had the knack of turning up again on
the coast with half a steamer's load of small arms and ammunition. Such
resourcefulness Captain Mitchell considered as perfectly wonderful in view of
their utter destitution at the time of flight. He had observed that »they never
seemed to have enough change about them to pay for their passage ticket out of
the country.« And he could speak with knowledge; for on a memorable occasion he
had been called upon to save the life of a dictator, together with the lives of
a few Sulaco officials - the political chief, the director of the customs, and
the head of police - belonging to an overturned government. Poor Señor Ribiera
(such was the dictator's name) had come pelting eighty miles over mountain
tracks after the lost battle of Socorro, in the hope of out-distancing the fatal
news - which, of course, he could not manage to do on a lame mule. The animal,
moreover, expired under him at the end of the Alameda, where the military band
plays sometimes in the evenings between the revolutions. »Sir,« Captain Mitchell
would pursue with portentous gravity, »the ill-timed end of that mule attracted
attention to the unfortunate rider. His features were recognized by several
deserters from the Dictatorial army amongst the rascally mob already engaged in
smashing the windows of the Intendencia.«
    Early on the morning of that day the local authorities of Sulaco had fled
for refuge to the O.S.N. Company's offices, a strong building near the shore end
of the jetty, leaving the town to the mercies of a revolutionary rabble; and as
the Dictator was execrated by the populace on account of the severe recruitment
law his necessities had compelled him to enforce during the struggle, he stood a
good chance of being torn to pieces. Providentially, Nostromo - invaluable
fellow - with some Italian workmen, imported to work upon the National Central
Railway, was at hand, and managed to snatch him away - for the time at least.
Ultimately, Captain Mitchell succeeded in taking everybody off in his own gig to
