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Updated: June 13, 2025
"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."
"Unless you mean " "Quipai." "Oh, how dull I am! I see now. Quipai rest here." "Si, señor." "And if I rest here, you will " "Do as you wish, señor, and with all my heart; for as you love me, so I love you." "Dearest Angela!" I said, kissing her hand, "you make me almost too happy. Never will I leave Quipai without you." "And never will I leave it without you. But let us not talk of leaving Quipai.
"I know of but one institution in Quipai, and I admire it more than I can tell." "And that is?" "Yourself, Monsieur l'Abbé." The abbé smiled as if the compliment pleased him, but the next moment his face took the "pale cast of thought," and he remained silent for several minutes. "I know what you mean," he said at length, speaking slowly and rather sadly.
At the outset Balthazar, having no physical force at his command, had to trust altogether to personal influence, which, being now re-enforced by the highest religious sanctions, made his power literally absolute. Albeit Quipai possessed neither soldiers, constables, nor prison, his authority was never questioned; he was as implicitly obeyed as a general at the head of an army in the field.
Behind us rose the stupendous range of the Andes, with its snow-white peaks and smoking volcanoes; before us the oasis of Quipai rolled like a river of living green to the shores of the measureless ocean, whose shining waters in that clear air and under that azure sky seemed only a few miles away, while, as far as the eye could reach, the coast-line was fringed with the dreary waste where I had so nearly perished.
Had the abbé, instead of spending a lifetime in making Quipai, devoted his energies to some other work, he might have won for himself enduring fame and permanently benefited mankind. As it was, he had effected less than nothing, and I was resolved not to court his fate by following his example.
As I asked myself this question, Ramon touched me on the shoulder, and whispered in Quipai: "Just now Yawl said to Kidd that it was quite time we sighted San Ambrosio, and that if we missed it, after all, it would be cursed awkward. And Kidd answered that 'if we fell in with Hux it would be all right." This was more puzzling still.
For hours Angela and I rode on in silence; our distress was too deep for words. "Quipai is gone," she murmured at length, shuddering and looking at me with tear-filled eyes. "Yes, gone and forever. As entirely as if it had never been. It is worse than the carnage of a great battle. These poor people! Nature is more cruel than man."
My people are good and faithful, but they require a prescient and capable chief, and there is not one among them who is fitted either by nature or education to take the place of leader. Will you be my successor, Monsieur Nigel?" This was a startling proposal. To stay in Quipai for a few weeks or even a few months might be very delightful. But to settle for life in an Andean desert!
She several times interrupted me with requests for information as to matters which even among European children are of common knowledge, for, though the abbé was a man of high learning and she an apt pupil, her experience of life was limited to Quipai; and he had been so long out of the world that he had almost forgotten it. As for news, he was worse off than Fray Ignacio.
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