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." "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 desert, which we are always fighting and have so far conquered, would regain the mastery, and the mission become what I found it, a little oasis at the foot of the Cordillera, supporting with difficulty a few score families of naked Indians.

One of these days, if you are so disposed, you shall follow the course of the _azequia_ and see for yourself with what a marvellous reservoir, fed by Andean snows, Nature has provided us.

But more of this another time.

Look! Yonder is San Cristobal, our capital as I sometimes call it, though little more than a village." The abbe said truly.