This is a slight misquote of what we heard Mitchell say , a subtle hint that the 'omniscient' narrator is himself fallible. It will be the rule in Nostromo that whenever a line is quoted, even by the narrator, it is gotten slightly wrong, a humorous trend that helps convey the theme of subjectivity, in which facts are perceived only through the distorting lens of biases and errors. As for Mitchell himself, as usual he is a bit off: it was Teresa, not Giorgio, who encouraged Nostromo to desert (see ).