Under cover of his "anecdote," Conrad is smuggling in a historically and symbolically laden term. Tierra Firme (literally, "mainland") is a Spanish name for the South American coast that dates back to the time of Columbus and the conquest; indeed, the famous treasure fleets of the 17th century were known as the Tierra Firme fleet, adding a vast resonance to the stolen "lighter-full of silver" mentioned here. Beyond that, "Tierra Firme" suggests the colloquial Latin "Terra Firma," meaning "solid ground," very apropos for a novel which maintains that the physical world has no meaning except what is assigned by human imagination. The whole of the novel can be said to transpire, like Conrad's anecdote, "somewhere on the Tierra Firme seaboard." See the novel's subtitle, "A Tale of the Seaboard."