16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
from his chief, but he continues the same
kindness towards me, and sometimes with my
wide connexions I am able to let him know of
a profitable venture, as I did for his predecessor.'
In a kind of parenthesis they talked about
trade for a while: it was a subject upon which
Gayongos, with his correspondents and business
associates up and down the Pacific coast
and beyond the isthmus, even as far as the
United States, was unusually well qualified to
speak. He had many activities but the chief
was the insurance of ships and their cargoes,
sometimes joining in a scheme he thought unusually
sound; and to make a success of these
an accurate knowledge of conditions, public
feeling and official intention in the various
provinces was of the first importance. 'As I am
sure you know,' he observed, 'the governors of
all the considerable cities, garrisons and dis-