Cape Juby was right in the middle of the dissident zone, in Rio de Oro, a stopping-place between Casablanca and Dakar which belonged to the Spaniards. They had built a fortress where the governor, Colonel de Ia Pefla, lived permanently with a battalion of soldiers and some officers. From time to time they would go out on inspection in the Sahara. They did not want the French pilots to have a landing base in Cape Juby, though they allowed the pilots to land in order to fill the tanks. if a pilot happened to fall, with the aircraft, in the dissident zone, he knew that he could not expect any help from the Spaniards, who had been ordered not to intervene by the Madrid government.
Under such conditions, Didier Daurat took the decision to send someone to Cape Juby, someone able to rescue the pilots fallen in the desert in order to ease the good running of the mail fligh ts. Several pilots had had their throats cut. Therefore, Daurat was in need of a man able to use tact and diplomacy on Colonel de Ia Pefla, and obtain permission from him for the setting up of an airfield. At the same time, he had to be a brave man, on stand by day and night, ready to fly out on rescue of any aircraft fallen in the desert.
Seaside
Nobody seemed more appropriate for this mission than Saint-Exupéry.And here is Antoine, surrounded by a fence of barbed wire, the sea on one side and the desert on the other. Later he shall complain to his mother about this feeling of seclusion: "What a life... like a monk, in Africa's most forsaken spot, in the middle of the Spanish Sahara. A fortress by the sea and our rustic dwelling, that is all in hundreds of kilometers around...
The sea, at ebb tide, bathes us completely and, at night, I lean my elbows on the small barred window (we are in the dissident zone) and I can discern the sea by my feet, as near as if I were on a boat. Throughout the night the waves hit the walls of my barrack. The other wall is set toward the desert... "And he goes on: "I live in total deprivation. My bed consists of a board and a thin mattress. A wash basin. Ajar of water. I forget other details.., the typewriter and some official papers. It is like a monastery cell.
The aircrafts land here every eight days. In between these days silence..." (Letter to his mother. Cape Juby 1927.) In order to overcome this deadly boredom, which may take possession of a man under such conditions, Saint-Exupéry establishes ties with the Spaniards and soon wins them over with his games of cards and his telepathy demonstrations. He gains their confidence and the barrack that he shares with Toto -basically a mecanic but also a cook during his free time- is full of voices, songs and parties.
Makes friends with Arab children
He also makes friends with some Arab children who maraud by the barracks, and gradually acquires renoun of being a good man, different from others. He is invited to tea in their tents. In exchange, Saint-Ex takes them on the aircraft. He treats them as equals, for the crux of the matter is, as he would later write in his Wind, sand and stars, "to calm down their pride which is the main reason why they kill the prisoners, more than for reasons of hatred.
They were not ignorant of the fact that some of them saw the Arabs as a crowd full of indifference and disdain, and this moved the Arabs to be vindicative".Now he has a few Arabs on which he can count, and their help shall be very useful when the moment comes to rescue a pilot fallen in the desert. This happens quite often. Then Saint-Exupéry has to inspect the desert until he finds him, When the accident is of little importance the aircraft can be repaired quickly. It has to be done in a hurry because the rebellious Arabs keep watch. Sometimes the risks are high... "Looking for two air-planes lost in the desert I covered 8.000 kilometers in two days.
More than three hundred men pursued me, shooting at me as if I were a rabbit. There have been moments of fear, four times I landed on dissident's territory, even I had to spend the night there because of an accident... On such ts my skin, offered with the greatest generosity, is at stake." (Cape Juby 1928) But the situation in the desert is not always as effervescent, and at h times all live in complete harmony at Cape Juby. At night, Saint-Exupéry writes a new book.
"He happened to see the designation of the flight to Dakar, Southern Mail"
A board placed on two barrels is the desk on works. As he goes on putting together his book, he reads it aloud to his best friends, during the short spans of time that they spend with him, before taking off again. When it takes definite shape, he calls it Southern Mail. Why this title? According to Pierre Chevrier, Saint-Exupéry was looking for a title when "he happened to see the designation of the flight to Dakar, Southern Mail". And so he gave this title to his book in which he expands on the theme of The Pilot published two years before.
Eighteen months in Cape Juby and his mission was more than accomplished. When he starts his new assignment, he is awarded the Cross of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour for the following reasons: "Exceptional virtues, a pilot of great boldness, gifted with the best professional qualities, cold blooded to the utmost, and an exceptional sense of self-denial.
As airfield commander at Cape Juby, he fulfilled his mission with a sense of sacrifice beyond compare, in a desert area where the hostility of the Arabs is a permanent risk. He has to his credit several brilliant actions. His zeal, dedication and self-denial have largely served the cause of the French aviation. He has never hesitated in risking his life or suffering the rigorous climatic conditions. He has also contributed to the success of our commercial airlines, and, in particular, made the development of the Toulouse-Dakar line easier."
One year in the land "where the stones fly"
Didier Daurat thought the presence of Saint-Exupéry more important in South America when he appointed him, in October 1929, chief manager of the company "Aeroposta-Argentina". His task was to set up new branches along the Latin American coast, and so he was put in charge of supervising the last stage of the future route Natal-Punta Arenas. He had to open up new ways in the Comodoro Rivadavia and Punta Arenas areas. But he is not altogether satisfied with his new job.
He writes to his mother: "I have been appointed chief manager for the development of the Aeroposta Argentina, a branch of the main airline company, with a salary of 225.000 francs a year. I assume that this makes you happy; lam a little sad. I liked it the way I had it before. I think that I feel older. Of course, I shall continue flying, but only in order to inspect and supervise new routes..." (Buenos Aires, 1930.)
This feeling of weariness is clearly felt in a letter to his friend Rinette: "I have under my command a network of three thousand eight hundred kilometers which little by little sucks out of me the rest of you th and freedom which are still in me." (Letter to Renee de Saussine, Buenos Aires 1930.)He lives in Buenos Aires for a month, a city that he hates. The change is complete, the huge sand plains have been replaced by blocks of very high buildings where there are masses of people.
More time in airplane
In the same letter to Rinette, he adds: "I live in a small flat in a fifteen storey building, seven above and seven below me, surrounded by an enormous concrete city! I think, I would feel the same nimbleness in the middle of a great Pyramid." He uses to spend most of the time in the airplane, on the lookout for new airfields, sometimes fighting against the strong winds from the Patagonia. On his arrival in Buenos Aires he had met with his old friends again, from the Toulouse-Dakar route, Mermoz and Guillaumet among others.
Saint-Exupéry felt true admiration for them. He had known Mermoz, the pilot, the pioneer, since he first started flying, and when the route Casablanca-Dakar was inaugurated, the same Mermoz was one of the main pioneers. Later on he was sent as chief-pilot of South American routes and was entrusted with the establishment of a new commercial route. When the idea of night flights first appeared, Mermoz was one of the first to turn it into reality.
As Saint-Exupéry explains later in Wind, sand and stars, "Mermoz undertook such engagements not knowing anything about it, not knowing whether he was going to come out alive of such struggles or not. Mermoz experimented for the others."Saint-Exupery also liked Guillaumet very much. He remembered how Guillaumet had cheered him up on the wake of his first flight Toulouse-Rabat. Gudlaumet, the good companion, would get lost later on the Andes when Saint-Exupéry was chief of the Aeroposta. For five days they searched the area although they had been warned by Indians from the Andes that "the Andes mountains, in winter, do not return the men".
All hope seemed lost but after eight days they were told that Guillaumet was alive. Later he would say that lapidary sentence: "I can assure you that I had to struggle more than an animal." Indeed he had had to fight against mountains, snow and hunger. In the end his face had changed completely. "It was black, swollen like an overripened fruit that everybody had hit. His hands were slow and, in order to speak, he had to sit on the edge of the bed and keep his feet dangling like a dead weight." This is what Saint-Exupéry wrote in Wind, sand and stars, a book dedicated to Guillaumet. He used to say of him... "he sheds confidence like a lamp sheds tight."
Worked a lot at writing his second book, Night Flight
Throughout that South American year Saint-Exupéry worked a lot at writing his second book, Night Flight, which was going to be a fabulous success. Its leit-motive, night flights, was then very much in fashion. It is all about the self denial of the pilots, and the inner conflicts of the chief manager of an airport whose duty is to be above his private needs. Andre Gide wrote the introduction, and the book won the Femina Prize in December 1931.
This way Saint-Exupéry became the most appraised man of his time... the well-known pilot started also as a great writer. But his friends turned their backs on him, contrary to the public, who praised his book. His friends reproached him for having diverged from the truth about the work of the pilots, the dramatic character of their night flights, in short, they reproached him for having disfigured reality. Strictly speaking, Saint-Exupéry would not write books again, and his Night Flight would become a nightmare for him.
"Because I have written this book", he writes to Guillaumet in 1932, "my friends have sentenced me to a life of misery and unfriendliness. Mermoz will tell you about the reputation they have created around me those who do not want to see me any more, those that I loved so much". That year, 1931, would be full of events. In April, Saint-Exupéry marries Consuelo Suncin, widow of the Argentinian journalist Gomez Carrillo. The same year, the Airline company and its branch, the Aeroposta Argentina, showed signs of disaster. The banks stopped (heir credits and Saint-Exupéry was dismissed.
Start from scratch
Without a job, Saint-Exupéry was obliged to accept a post as a simple pilot. After many years he was doing the night flight Casablanca-Dakar again. Meanwhile time was up for the Airline Company, and also for Didier Daurat, who was going to be substituted. A few months later, Pierre Cot, new civil airways minister amalgamated all the private air companies in one, and so was formed "Air France". That was a hard blow for everyone.
Aeroposta was the end of the spirit of solidarity and closeness. Aimless again, Saint-Exupéry finds a job as a trial pilot at the Latecoere company, aircraft and seaplane constructor. His job lacks interest and Saint-Exupéry becomes listless in such an atmosphere: "I have just gone back to the seaplane centre - he writes to a friend of his-, where I did some trials. My ears still drone and my hands are full of grease. Jam drinking alone on a terrace of a little café and night is falling. I don't feel like going to supper...
I spend my days by a pond which is neither a sea nor a lake. It is a mere lifeless surface which I do not like." (Perpignan, 1932.) On the other hand, Saint-Exupéry is not a brilliant trial pilot. He makes unforgivable mistakes. The last one almost kills him. He is compelled to resign. Back in Paris, he is bored stiff Moreover his financial situation is precarious. Since there is no better choice, and in order to escape inactivity, in 1934 he accepts a job in the advertising department of Air France. He travels on missions in France and abroad.
After a trip to Saigon, he is sent to Moscow in May 1935 with the task to write several articles for the newspaper "Paris-Soir" He writes five articles altogether, and they are a great success. The opposite happens with his film Anne-Marie. He had wrUten the script before but the film was only partly successful. Nevertheless his finances have improved in the last few months, so much so that he buys himself an airplane, the "Simoun", then the fastest airplane.