Part 61 (1/2)
[Footnote 30: Ms. de Caravantes. - Gomara, Hist. de las Indians, cap. 187. - Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 1, lib. 2, cap.
93-95. - Zarate. Conq. del Peru, lib. 7, cap. 10.]
Gasca had been now more than fifteen months in Lima and nearly three years had elapsed since his first entrance into Peru. In that time, he had accomplished the great objects of his mission.
When he landed, he found the colony in a state of anarchy, or rather organized rebellion under a powerful and popular chief.
He came without funds or forces to support him. The former he procured through the credit which he established in his good faith; the latter he won over by argument and persuasion from the very persons to whom they had been confided by his rival. Thus he turned the arms of that rival against himself. By a calm appeal to reason he wrought a change in the hearts of the people; and, without costing a drop of blood to a single loyal subject, he suppressed a rebellion which had menaced Spain with the loss of the wealthiest of her provinces. He had punished the guilty, and in their spoils found the means to recompense the faithful.
He had, moreover, so well husbanded the resources of the country, that he was enabled to pay off the large loan he had negotiated with the merchants of the colony, for the expenses of the war, exceeding nine hundred thousand pesos de oro. *31 Nay, more, by his economy he had saved a million and a half of ducats for the government, which for some years had received nothing from Peru; and he now proposed to carry back this acceptable treasure to swell the royal coffers. *32 All this had been accomplished without the cost of outfit or salary, or any charge to the Crown except that of his own frugal expenditure. *33 The country was now in a state of tranquillity Gasca felt that his work was done; and that he was free to gratify his natural longing to return to his native land.
[Footnote 31: ”Recogio tanta sema de dinero, que pago novecientos mil pesos de Oro, que se hallo haver gastado, desde el Dia que entro en Panama, hasta que se acabo la Guerra, los quales tomo prestados.” Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 8, lib. 5, cap. 7. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 7, cap. 10.]
[Footnote 32: ”Aviendo pagado el Presidente las costas de la guerra que fueron muchas, remitio a S. M y lo llevo consigo 264,422 marcos de plata, que a seis ducados valieron 1 millon 588,332 ducados” Ms. de Caravantes.]
[Footnote 33: ”No tubo ni quiso salario el Presidente Gasca sino cedula para que a un mayordomo suyo diosen los Oficiales reales lo necesario de la real Hacienda, que como pareze de los quadernos de su gasto fue muy moderado.” (Ms. de Caravantes.) Gasca, it appears, was most exact in keeping the accounts of his disburs.e.m.e.nts for the expenses of himself and household, from the time he embarked for the colonies.]
Before his departure, he arranged a distribution of those repartimientos which had lapsed to the Crown during the past year by the death of the inc.u.mbents. Life was short in Peru; since those who lived by the sword, if they did not die by the sword, too often fell early victims to the hards.h.i.+ps incident to their adventurous career. Many were the applicants for the new bounty of government; and, as among them were some of those who had been discontented with the former part.i.tion, Gasca was a.s.sailed by remonstrances, and sometimes by reproaches couched in no very decorous or respectful language. But they had no power to disturb his equanimity; he patiently listened, and replied to all in the mild tone of expostulation best calculated to turn away wrath; ”by this victory over himself,” says an old writer, ”acquiring more real glory, than by all his victories over his enemies.” *34
[Footnote 34: ”En lo qual hizo mas que en vencer y ganar todo aquel Ympe rio: porque fue vencerse a.s.si proprio.” Garcila.s.so, Com. Real Parte 2, lib. 6, cap. 7.]
An incident occurred on the eve of his departure, touching in itself, and honorable to the parties concerned. The Indian caciques of the neighbouring country, mindful of the great benefits he had rendered their people, presented him with a considerable quant.i.ty of plate in token of their grat.i.tude. But Gasca refused to receive it, though in doing so he gave much concern to the Peruvians who feared they had unwittingly fallen under his displeasure.
Many of the princ.i.p.al colonists, also, from the same wish to show their sense of his important services, sent to him, after he had embarked, a magnificent donative of fifty thousand gold castellanos. ”As he had taken leave of Peru,” they said, ”there could be no longer any ground for declining it.” But Gasca was as decided in his rejection of this present, as he had been of the other. ”He had come to the country,” he remarked, ”to serve the king, and to secure the blessings of peace to the inhabitants; and now that, by the favor of Heaven, he had been permitted to accomplish this, he would not dishonor the cause by any act that might throw suspicion on the purity of his motives.”
Notwithstanding his refusal, the colonists contrived to secrete the sum of twenty thousand castellanos on board of his vessel, with the idea, that, once in his own country, with his mission concluded, the president's scruples would be removed. Gasca did, indeed, accept the donative; for he felt that it would be ungracious to send it back; but it was only till he could ascertain the relatives of the donors, when he distributed it among the most needy. *35
[Footnote 35: Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 1, lib. 2, cap.
95.]
Having now settled all his affairs, the president committed the government, until the arrival of a viceroy, to his faithful partners of the Royal Audience, and in January, 1150, he embarked with the royal treasure on board of a squadron for Panama. He was accompanied to the sh.o.r.e by a numerous crowd of the inhabitants, cavaliers and common people, persons of all ages and conditions, who followed to take their last look of their benefactor, and watch with straining eyes the vessel that bore him away from their land.
His voyage was prosperous, and early in March the president reached his destined port. He stayed there only till he could muster horses and mules sufficient to carry the treasure across the mountains; for he knew that this part of the country abounded in wild, predatory spirits, who would be sorely tempted to some act of violence by a knowledge of the wealth which he had with him. Pus.h.i.+ng forward, therefore, he crossed the rugged Isthmus, and, after a painful march, arrived in safety at Nombre de Dios.
The event justified his apprehensions. He had been gone but three days, when a ruffian horde, after murdering the bishop of Guatemala, broke into Panama with the design of inflicting the same fate on the president, and of seizing the booty. No sooner were the tidings communicated to Gasca, than, with his usual energy, he levied a force and prepared to march to the relief of the invaded capital. But Fortune - or, to speak more correctly Providence - favored him here, as usual; and, on the eve of his departure, he learned that the marauders had been met by the citizens, and discomfited with great slaughter. Disbanding his forces, therefore, he equipped a fleet of nineteen vessels to transport himself and the royal treasure to Spain, where he arrived in safety, entering the harbour of Seville after a little more than four years from the period when he had sailed from the same port. *36
[Footnote 36: Ms. de Caravantes. - Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 183. - Fernandez, Hist. del Peru Parte 2, lib 1, cap. 10. - Zarate Conq. del Peru, lib. 7, cap. 13. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 8, lib. 6. cap. 17. 2, lib 1, cap. 10. - Zarate Conq.]
Great was the sensation throughout the country caused by his arrival. Men could hardly believe that results so momentous had been accomplished in so short a time by a single individual, - a poor ecclesiastic, who, unaided by government, had, by his own strength, as it were, put down a rebellion which had so long set the arms of Spain at defiance!
The emperor was absent in Flanders. He was overjoyed on learning the complete success of Gasca's mission; and not less satisfied with the tidings of the treasure he had brought with him; for the exchequer, rarely filled to overflowing, had been exhausted by the recent troubles in Germany. Charles instantly wrote to the president, requiring his presence at court, that he might learn from his own lips the particulars of his expedition. Gasca, accordingly, attended by a numerous retinue of n.o.bles and cavaliers, - for who does not pay homage to him whom the king delighteth to honor? - embarked at Barcelona, and, after a favorable voyage, joined the Court in Flanders.
He was received by his royal master, who fully appreciated his services, in a manner most grateful to his feelings; and not long afterward he was raised to the bishopric of Palencia, - a mode of acknowledgment best suited to his character and deserts. Here he remained till 1561, when he was promoted to the vacant see of Siguenza. The rest of his days he pa.s.sed peacefully in the discharge of his episcopal functions; honored by his sovereign, and enjoying the admiration and respect of his countrymen. *37
[Footnote 37: Ibid., ubi supra. - Ms. de Caravantes. - Gomara, Hist. de as Indias, cap. 182. - Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 2, lib. 1 cap. 10. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru lib. 7, cap. 13.]
In his retirement, he was still consulted by the government in matters of importance relating to the Indies. The disturbances of that unhappy land were renewed, though on a much smaller scale than before, soon after the president's departure. They were chiefly caused by discontent with the repartimientos, and with the constancy of the Audience in enforcing the benevolent restrictions as to the personal services of the natives. But these troubles subsided, after a very few years, under the wise rule of the Mendozas, - two successive viceroys of that ill.u.s.trious house which has given so many of its sons to the service of Spain. Under their rule, the mild yet determined policy was pursued, of which Gasca had set the example. The ancient distractions of the country were permanently healed.
With peace, prosperity returned within the borders of Peru; and the consciousness of the beneficent results of his labors may have shed a ray of satisfaction, as it did of glory, over the evening of the president's life.
That life was brought to a close in November 1567, at an age, probably, not far from the one fixed by the sacred writer as the term of human existence. *38 He died at Valladolid, and was buried in the church of Santa Maria Magdalena, in that city, which he had built and liberally endowed. His monument, surmounted by the sculptured effigy of a priest in his sacerdotal robes, is still to be seen there, attracting the admiration of the traveller by the beauty of its execution. The banners taken from Gonzalo Pizarro on the field of Xaquixaguana were suspended over his tomb, as the trophies of his memorable mission to Peru.
*39 The banners have long since mouldered into dust, with the remains of him who slept beneath them; but the memory of his good deeds will endure for ever. *40 [Footnote 38: I have met with no account of the year in which Gasca was born; but an inscription on his portrait in the sacristy of St. Mary Magdalene at Valladolid, from which the engraving prefixed to this volume is taken, states that he died in 1567, at the age of seventy-one. This is perfectly consistent with the time of life at which he had probably arrived when we find him a collegiate at Salamanca, in the year 1522.]
[Footnote 39: ”Murio en Valladolid, donde mando enterrar su cuerpo en la Iglesia de la advocacion de la Magdalena, que hizo edificar en aquella ciudad, donde se pusieron las vanderas que gano a Gonzalo Pizarro.” Ms. de Caravantes.]
[Footnote 40: The memory of his achievements has not been left entirely to the care of the historian. It is but a few years since the character and administration of Gasca formed the subject of an elaborate panegyric from one of the most distinguished statesmen in the British parliament. (See Lord Brougham's speech on the maltreatment of the North American colonies, February, 1838.) The enlightened Spaniard of our day, who contemplates with sorrow the excesses committed by his countrymen of the sixteenth century in the New World, may feel an honest pride, that in this company of dark spirits should be found one to whom the present generation may turn as to the brightest model of integrity and wisdom.]
Gasca was plain in person, and his countenance was far from comely. He was awkward and ill-proportioned; for his limbs were too long for his body, - so that when he rode, he appeared to be much shorter than he really was. *41 His dress was humble, his manners simple, and there was nothing imposing in his presence.
But, on a nearer intercourse, there was a charm in his discourse that effaced every unfavorable impression produced by his exterior, and won the hearts of his hearers.
[Footnote 41: ”Era muy pequeno de cuerpo con estrana hechura, que de la cintura abaxo tenia tanto cuerpo, como qualquiera hombre alto, y de la cintura al hombro no tenia vna tercia. Andando a cauallo parescia a vn mas pequeno de lo que era, porque todo era piernas: de rostro era muy feo: pero lo que la naturaleza le nego de las dotes del cuerpo, se los doblo en los del animo.”
Garcila.s.so, Com. Real, Parte 2, lib. 5, cap. 2.]