ptain-general of Peru that there was a member of the proscribed order in
his vice-royalty, even at so out of the way a place as Quipai he would
have been sent about his business without ceremony. The possibility of
this contingency was always in the abbe's mind. For a time it caused him
serious disquiet; but as the years went on and no notice was taken of him
his mind became easier. The news I brought of the then recent events in
Spain and the revolt of her colonies made him easier. The viceroy would
have too many irons in the fire to trouble himself about the mission of
Quipai and its chief, even if they should come to his knowledge, which was
to the last degree improbable. We sat talking for several hours, and
should probably have talked longer had not the abbe kindly yet
peremptorily insisted on my retiring to rest.

Early next morning we started on an excursion to the valley lake, each of
us mounted on a fine mule from the abbe's stables, and attended by an
_arriero_. North as well as south of San Cristobal (as the village was
generally called) the country had the same garden-like aspect. There was
none of the tangled vegetation which in tropical forests impedes the
traveller's progress; except where they had been planted by the roadside
for protection from the sun, or bent over the water-courses, the trees
grew wide apart like trees in a park. Men and women were busy in the
fields and plantations, for the abbe 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. The secret of his power was the personal
ascendancy of a strong man, the naturally docile character of his
converts, the inflexible justice which characterized all his dealings with
them, and the belief assiduously cultivated, that as he had been their
benefactor in this world he could control their destinies in the next.
Though he never punished he was always obeyed, and there was probably not
a man or woman under his sway who would have hesitated to obey him, even
to death.

The lake was small yet picturesque, its verdant banks deepening by
contrast the dark desolation of the arid mountains in which it was
embosomed. Some three thousand feet above it rose the extinct volcano, the
slopes of which in the days of the Incas were terraced and c