The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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Neither was Gasca unmindful of the unfortunate natives; and he
occupied himself earnestly with that difficult problem, - the
best means practicable of ameliorating their condition. He sent
a number of commissioners, as visitors, into different parts of
the country, whose business it was to inspect the encomiendas,
and ascertain the manner in which the Indians were treated, by
conversing not only with the proprietors, but with the natives
themselves. They were also to learn the nature and extent of the
tributes paid in former times by the vassals of the Incas. *28

[Footnote 28: "El Presidente Gasca mando visitar todas las
provincias y repartimientos deste reyno, nombrando para ello
personas de autoridad y de quien se tenia entendido que tenian
conoscimiento de la tierra que se les encargavan, que ha de ser
la principal calidad, que se ha buscar en la persona, a quien se
comete semejante negocio despues que sea Cristiana: lo segundo se
les dio instruccion de lo que hauian de averiguar, que fueron
muchas cosas: el numero, las haciendas, los tratos y grangerias,
la calidad de la gente y de sus tierras y comarca y lo que davan
de tributo." Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.]

In this way, a large amount of valuable information was obtained,
which enabled Gasca, with the aid of a council of ecclesiastics
and jurists, to digest a uniform system of taxation for the
natives, lighter even than that imposed on them by the Peruvian
princes. The president would gladly have relieved the conquered
races from the obligations of personal service; but, on mature
consideration, this was judged impracticable in the present state
of the country, since the colonists, more especially in the
tropical regions, looked to the natives for the performance of
labor, and the latter, it was found from experience, would not
work at all, unless compelled to do so. The president, however,
limited the amount of service to be exacted with great precision,
so that it was in the nature of a moderate personal tax. No
Peruvian was to be required to change his place of residence,
from the climate to which he had been accustomed, to another; a
fruitful source of discomfort, as well as of disease, in past
times. By these various regulations, the condition of the
natives, though not such as had been contemplated by the sanguine
philanthropy of Las Casas, was improved far more than was
compatible with the craving demands of the colonists; and all the
firmness of the Audience was required to enforce provisions so
unpalatable to the latter. Still they were enforced. Slavery,
in its most odious sense, was no longer tolerated in Peru. The
term "slave" was not recognized as having relation to her
institutions; and the historian of the Indies makes the proud
boast, - it should have been qualified by the limitations I have
noticed, - that every Indian vassal might aspire to the rank of a
freeman. *29
[Footnote 29: "El Presidente, i el Audiencia dieron tales
oraenes, que este negocio se asento, de manera, que para adelante
no se platico mas este nombre de Esclavos, sino que la libertad
fue general por todo el Reino." Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. 8, lib.
5, cap. 7.]

Besides these reforms, Gasca introduced several in the municipal
government of the cities, and others yet more important in the
management of the finances, and in the mode of keeping the
accounts. By these and other changes in the internal economy of
the colony, he placed the administration on a new basis, and
greatly facilitated the way for a more sure and orderly
government by his successors. As a final step, to secure the
repose of the country after he was gone, he detached some of the
more aspiring cavaliers on distant expeditions, trusting that
they would draw off the light and restless spirits, who might
otherwise gather together and disturb the public tranquillity; as
we sometimes see the mists which have been scattered by the
genial influence of the sun become condensed, and settle into a
storm, on his departure. *30

[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
disbursements 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 incumbents. 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 hardships 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 partition, Gasca was assailed 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 assi proprio." Garcilasso,
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 quantity of plate in token of their gratitude. 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 principal 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 shore 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. Pushing 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 nobles 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 passed 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
illustrious 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."
Garcilasso, Com. Real, Parte 2, lib. 5, cap. 2.]
The president's character may be thought to have been
sufficiently portrayed in the history already given of his life.
It presented a combination of qualities which generally serve to
neutralize each other, but which were mixed in such proportions
in him as to give it additional strength. He was gentle, yet
resolute; by nature intrepid, yet preferring to rely on the
softer arts of policy. He was frugal in his personal
expenditure, and economical in the public; yet caring nothing for
riches on his own account, and never stinting his bounty when the
public good required it. He was benevolent and placable, yet
could deal sternly with the impenitent offender; lowly in his
deportment, yet with a full measure of that self-respect which
springs from conscious rectitude of purpose; modest and
unpretending, yet not shrinking from the most difficult
enterprises; deferring greatly to others, yet, in the last
resort, relying mainly on himself; moving with deliberation, -
patiently waiting his time; but, when that came, bold, prompt,
and decisive.

Gasca was not a man of genius, in the vulgar sense of that term.
At least, no one of his intellectual powers seems to have
received an extraordinary development, beyond what is found in
others. He was not a great writer, nor a great orator, nor a
great general. He did not affect to be either. He committed the
care of his military matters to military men; of ecclesiastical,
to the clergy; and his civi and judicial concerns he reposed on
the members of the Audience. He was not one of those little
great men who aspire to do every thing themselves, under the
conviction that nothing can be done so well by others. But the
president was a keen judge of character. Whatever might be the
office, he selected the best man for it. He did more. He
assured himself of the fidelity of his agents, presided at their
deliberations; dictated a general line of policy, and thus
infused a spirit of unity into their plans, which made all move
in concert to the accomplishment of one grand result.
A distinguishing feature of his mind was his common sense, - the
best substitute for genius in a ruler who has the destinies of
his fellow-men at his disposal, and more indispensable than
genius itself. In Gasca, the different qualities were blended in
such harmony, that there was no room for excess. They seemed to
regulate each other. While his sympathy with mankind taught him
the nature of their wants, his reason suggested to what extent
these were capable of relief, as well as the best mode of
effecting it. He did not waste his strength on illusory schemes
of benevolence, like Las Casas, on the one hand; nor did he
countenance the selfish policy of the colonists, on the other.
He aimed at the practicable, - the greatest good practicable.

In accomplishing his objects, he disclaimed force equally with
fraud. He trusted for success to his power over the convictions
of his hearers; and the source of this power was the confidence
he inspired in his own integrity. Amidst all the calumnies of
faction, no imputation was ever cast on the integrity of Gasca.
*42 No wonder that a virtue so rare should be of high price in
Peru.

[Footnote 42: "Fue tan recatado y estremado en esta virtud, que
puesto que de muchos quedo mal quisto, quando del Peru se partio
para Espana, por el repartimiento que hizo: con todo esso, jamas
nadie dixo del, ni sospecho; que en esto ni otra cosa, se vuiesse
mouido por codicia." Fernandez, Hist. de Peru, Parte 1, lib. 2
cap. 95]

There are some men whose characters have been so wonderfully
adapted to the peculiar crisis in which they appeared, that they
seem to have been specially designed for it by Providence. Such
was Washington in our own country, and Gasca in Peru We can
conceive of individuals with higher qualities, at least with
higher intellectual qualities, than belonged to either of these
great men. But it was the wonderful conformity of their
characters to the exigencies of their situation, the perfect
adaptation of the means to the end, that constituted the secret
of their success; that enabled Gasca so gloriously to crush
revolution, and Washington still more gloriously to achieve it.

Gasca's conduct on his first coming to the colonies affords the
best illustration of his character. Had he come backed by a
military array, or even clothed in the paraphernalia of
authority, every heart and hand would have been closed against
him. But the humble ecclesiastic excited no apprehension; and
his enemies were already disarmed, before he had begun his
approaches. Had Gasca, impatient of Hinojosa's tardiness,
listened to the suggestions of those who advised his seizure, he
would have brought his cause into jeopardy by this early display
of violence. But he wisely chose to win over his enemy by
operating on his conviction.
In like manner, he waited his time for making his entry into
Peru. He suffered his communications to do their work in the
minds of the people, and was careful not to thrust in the sickle
before the harvest was ripe. In this way, wherever he went,
every thing was prepared for his coming; and when he set foot in
Peru, the country was already his own.
After the dark and turbulent spirits with which we have been
hitherto occupied, it is refreshing to dwell on a character like
that of Gasca. In the long procession which has passed in review
before us, we have seen only the mail-clad cavalier, brandishing
his bloody lance, and mounted on his warhorse, riding over the
helpless natives, or battling with his own friends and brothers;
fierce, arrogant, and cruel, urged on by the lust of gold, or the
scarce more honorable love of a bastard glory. Mingled with
these qualities, indeed, we have seen sparkles of the chivalrous
and romantic temper which belongs to the heroic age of Spain.
But, with some honorable exceptions, it was the scum of her
chivalry that resorted to Peru, and took service under the banner
of the Pizarros. At the close of this long array of iron
warriors, we behold the poor and humble missionary coming into
the land on an errand of mercy, and everywhere proclaiming the
glad tidings of peace. No warlike trumpet heralds his approach,
nor is his course to be tracked by the groans of the wounded and
the dying. The means he employs are in perfect harmony with his
end. His weapons are argument and mild persuasion. It is the
reason ne would conquer, not the body. He wins his way by
conviction, not by violence. It is a moral victory to which he
aspires, more potent, and happily more permanent, than that of
the blood-stained conqueror. As he thus calmly, and
imperceptibly, as it were, comes to his great results, he may
remind us of the slow, insensible manner in which Nature works
out her great changes in the material world, that are to endure
when the ravages of the hurricane are passed away and forgotten.

With the mission of Gasca terminates the history of the Conquest
of Peru. The Conquest, indeed, strictly terminates with the
suppression of the Peruvian revolt, when the strength, if not the
spirit, of the Inca race was crushed for ever. The reader,
however, might feel a natural curiosity to follow to its close
the fate of the remarkable family who achieved the Conquest. Nor
would the story of the invasion itself be complete without some
account of the civil wars which grew out of it; which serve,
moreover, as a moral commentary on preceding events, by showing
that the indulgence of fierce, unbridled passions is sure to
recoil, sooner or later, even in this life, on the heads of the
guilty.
It is true, indeed, that the troubles of the country were renewed
on the departure of Gasca. The waters had been too fearfully
agitated to be stilled, at once, into a calm; but they gradually
subsided, under the temperate rule of his successors, who wisely
profited by his policy and example. Thus the influence of the
good president remained after he was withdrawn from the scene of
his labors, and Peru, hitherto so distracted, continued to enjoy
as large a share of repose as any portion of the colonial empire
of Spain. With the benevolent mission of Gasca, then, the
historian of the Conquest may be permitted to terminate his
labors, - with feelings not unlike those of the traveller, who
having long journeyed among the dreary forests and dangerous
defiles of the mountains, a length emerges on some pleasant
landscape smiling in tranquillity and peace.
Augustin de Zarate - a highly respectable authority, frequently
cited in the later portion of this work - was Contador de
Mercedes, Comptroller of Accounts, for Castile. This office he
filled for fifteen years; after which he was sent by the
government to Peru to examine into the state of the colonial
finances, which had been greatly deranged by the recent troubles,
and to bring them, if possible, into order.