The resulting prosperity and the abbe's fame as a physician (he possessed a fair knowledge of medicine) drew other Indians to Quipai.
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 abbe, with the means at his command, could have achieved an enterprise so arduous and vast.

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.
The upper one was the crater of an extinct volcano, of unknown depth, which contained an immense quantity of water.

It took so long to fill that the abbe, as he laughingly told me, began to think that there must be a hole in the bottom.