[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.
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