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." "But surely! will you not try to restore the oasis and re-create Quipai ?" "To do that, _cara mia_, would require another Abbe Balthazar and sixty years of life.

And to what end?
Sooner or later our work would be destroyed as his has been, even if we were allowed to begin it.

The volcano may be active for ages.