As has Conrad, with his deliberate tangling of the novel's chronology.

Nostromo's chronological inconsistencies serve a specific narrative purpose. They concern mostly the period of time from Decoud's voicing of the Separatist plan to Nostromo's departure on the Unionist mission to Cayta -- in other words, they are part of the novel's examination of Separatism as a political and epistemological force. The message is that the very concept of time is an illusion like any other unifying dream-ideal, and is susceptible to breaking down into the same brutal truth that underlies political unity: namely, a contest of brute power, with one individual seen here imposing time on others as a weapon. When political Unity is finally established later in Part Three, the narrative will take pains to reimpose the illusion of a universal clock.