pilot – inexperienced – because he is flying over the sea. The older ones hug the land. Because it’s safer in a small plane. By reason of the sharks down there. Sometimes when I know that my pilot will refuse to take me by some route because of the weather, I ask for a young one who won’t know better.’
It was obvious that he was enjoying the slight risk involved of the descent into a shark-ridden sea. Had he demanded a young pilot on the day of his death, I wonder five years later?
I asked him on the plane, I don’t know for what reason, when it was during the day that he was liable to feel the most discouraged (he seemed to like such personal questions as though he felt in them the approach of a nearer friendship). He replied immediately, ‘At night when I go to bed. But when the sun rises I feel cheerful.’
If I was getting to know the General a little more at every meeting it was by his own wish. It was as though he had become bored and haunted by his public image and he wanted above all to be a private person who could talk to a friend, saying this and that without any forethought.
It was a group of yucca farmers whom we were now going to meet and listen to their complaints. After we landed, on the road to the village, he told me that he had decided to grant their demand for a rise from one dollar twenty-five cents to one dollar seventy-five cents a box. ‘This yucca centre has been a mistake – our mistake, not theirs. Anyway, I want to redistribute money, more to the country and less to the towns.’ All the same, he added, he would keep the peasants guessing for a while – for his amusement and theirs.
The meeting was in the open and before me I saw arranged the same faces, in the same funny hats, with the same protruding pie-dog ears, as the friends of the sandal-maker. Indeed, I am convinced that one of them was a peasant whom I had met that day at Ocú because he continually caught my eye and winked at me. Many of them had gold teeth and quite a number gold rings – Columbus perhaps would have taken it for a sign that Eldorado was not far away. They all tried to talk at once and to look fierce and determined, and the General, I could see, was thoroughly enjoying himself.
He began, ‘We’ll take the easy points first and we’ll leave the difficult yucca question to the last.’ It was a clever way of getting through things rapidly, for the peasants were only interested in the yucca, so that there was no disputing his other decisions. There was to be a new canal bridge, he promised, to ease the traffic across the Zone on the Bridge of the Americas; the location of a lime processing plant was left for later consideration; the plan for a mixed enterprise (sixty per cent private) for raising cattle was also left for another occasion. His audience were all glad to leave everything for another occasion except the yucca, including a question of salt refining and the use of salt in road construction.
Finally, with a stir of excited interest, came the price of yucca. The government, the General said, had been too ambitious in the encouragement of yucca. There had been many errors. All the same he doubted whether it was possible for him to raise the price. Who was going to provide the money? It would have to come out of the pocket of somebody.
The government engineer tried to speak. The General interrupted, saying it was the farmers he had come to hear.
He spoke again about the difficulties in putting up the price – exports mustn’t be endangered. Perhaps a rise of twenty cents . . . ? And he began to haggle over the cents. All the same there was amusement in his eyes. He was teasing them.
The peasants soon began to see what he was up to, and now they argued with half smiles and disputed with cracks of humour, till suddenly the General gave way. Then there was laughter and clapping. They had got the price which they had asked for. This was important, but above all the rest they had had a lot
It was obvious that he was enjoying the slight risk involved of the descent into a shark-ridden sea. Had he demanded a young pilot on the day of his death, I wonder five years later?
I asked him on the plane, I don’t know for what reason, when it was during the day that he was liable to feel the most discouraged (he seemed to like such personal questions as though he felt in them the approach of a nearer friendship). He replied immediately, ‘At night when I go to bed. But when the sun rises I feel cheerful.’
If I was getting to know the General a little more at every meeting it was by his own wish. It was as though he had become bored and haunted by his public image and he wanted above all to be a private person who could talk to a friend, saying this and that without any forethought.
It was a group of yucca farmers whom we were now going to meet and listen to their complaints. After we landed, on the road to the village, he told me that he had decided to grant their demand for a rise from one dollar twenty-five cents to one dollar seventy-five cents a box. ‘This yucca centre has been a mistake – our mistake, not theirs. Anyway, I want to redistribute money, more to the country and less to the towns.’ All the same, he added, he would keep the peasants guessing for a while – for his amusement and theirs.
The meeting was in the open and before me I saw arranged the same faces, in the same funny hats, with the same protruding pie-dog ears, as the friends of the sandal-maker. Indeed, I am convinced that one of them was a peasant whom I had met that day at Ocú because he continually caught my eye and winked at me. Many of them had gold teeth and quite a number gold rings – Columbus perhaps would have taken it for a sign that Eldorado was not far away. They all tried to talk at once and to look fierce and determined, and the General, I could see, was thoroughly enjoying himself.
He began, ‘We’ll take the easy points first and we’ll leave the difficult yucca question to the last.’ It was a clever way of getting through things rapidly, for the peasants were only interested in the yucca, so that there was no disputing his other decisions. There was to be a new canal bridge, he promised, to ease the traffic across the Zone on the Bridge of the Americas; the location of a lime processing plant was left for later consideration; the plan for a mixed enterprise (sixty per cent private) for raising cattle was also left for another occasion. His audience were all glad to leave everything for another occasion except the yucca, including a question of salt refining and the use of salt in road construction.
Finally, with a stir of excited interest, came the price of yucca. The government, the General said, had been too ambitious in the encouragement of yucca. There had been many errors. All the same he doubted whether it was possible for him to raise the price. Who was going to provide the money? It would have to come out of the pocket of somebody.
The government engineer tried to speak. The General interrupted, saying it was the farmers he had come to hear.
He spoke again about the difficulties in putting up the price – exports mustn’t be endangered. Perhaps a rise of twenty cents . . . ? And he began to haggle over the cents. All the same there was amusement in his eyes. He was teasing them.
The peasants soon began to see what he was up to, and now they argued with half smiles and disputed with cracks of humour, till suddenly the General gave way. Then there was laughter and clapping. They had got the price which they had asked for. This was important, but above all the rest they had had a lot
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