Angela would have yielded, but I was obdurate.

I could not see that it was in any sense our duty to bury ourselves in a remote corner of the Andes for the sake of a score or two of Indians who were very well able to do without us.

What could be the good of building up another colony and creating another oasis merely that the evil genii of the mountains might destroy them in a night?
Had the abbe, 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.
Those were the arguments I used to Angela, and in the end she not only fully agreed with me that it was well for us to go, but that the sooner we went the better.

The means were at hand.