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Updated: June 26, 2025
"Who knows that long ago the valley was not the bed of a river!" "It must be very long ago, then, before there was any Cordillera. Rain-clouds never cross the Andes, and for untold ages there can have been no rain here on the coast." "You are right. Without rain you cannot have much of a river, and if the azequia were to fail there would be very little left of Quipai."
A study of the topography of the region shows that the river which rises southwest of the village of Lucre and furnishes water power for its modern textile mills could have been used to supply such an azequia. The water, collected at an elevation of 10,700 feet, could easily have been brought six miles along the southern slopes of the Lucre Basin, around Mt.
Men and women were busy in the fields and plantations, for the abbé had done even a more wonderful thing than restoring the great azequia converted a tribe of indolent aborigines into an industrious community of husbandmen and craftsmen; among them were carpenters, smiths, masons, weavers, dyers, and cunning workers in silver and gold.
There is, in fact, a distinct line on the hillside which looks as though an azequia had once passed that way. In the valley back of Lucre are also faint indications of old azequias.
After a while the gigantic undertaking was begun, and little by little, and with infinite patience and pain accomplished. It was a work of many years, and when I travelled the whole length of the azequia I marvelled greatly how the abbé, with the means at his command, could have achieved an enterprise so arduous and vast.
"A most apt description, and so long as the great azequia is kept in repair and the system of irrigation which I have established is maintained it will remain a land of plenty and a garden of delight." "And if any harm should befall the azequia?" "In that case, and if our water-supply were to fail, Quipai, as you see it now, would cease to exist.
The aqueduct, nearly twenty leagues in length, extended from the foot of the snow-line to a valley above Quipai, the water being taken thence in stone-lined canals and wooden pipes to the seashore. In several places the azequia was carried on lofty arches over deep ravines: and there were two great reservoirs, both remarkable works.
"Don't suggest anything so dreadful as the failure of the azequia. It is the Palladium of the mission and the source of all our prosperity and happiness. Besides, how could it fail? You see how solidly it is built, and every month it is carefully inspected from end to end." "It might be destroyed by an earthquake." "You are pleased to be a Job's comforter, Monsieur Nigel.
"We owe it all to the great azequia," observed the abbé. "See, it feeds these rills and fills those fountains, waters our fields, and makes the desert bloom like the rose and the dry places rejoice. And we have not only fruit and flowers, but corn, coffee, cocoa, yuccas, potatoes, and almost every sort of vegetable." "Quipai is a land of plenty and a garden of delight."
"You have mixed with our people, seen our country, and inspected the great azequia in its entire length. Tell me, now, frankly, what do you think of us?" "I never passed so happy a month in my life, and " "I am glad to hear you say so, very glad. My question, however, referred not to your feelings but your opinion. I will repeat it: What think you of Quipai and its institutions?"
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