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good president remained after he was withdrawn from the scene of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.
Zarate went out accordingly in the train of the viceroy Blasco
Nunez, and found himself, through the passions of his imprudent
leader, entangled, soon after his arrival, in the inextricable
meshes of civil discord. In the struggle which ensued, he
remained with the Royal Audience; and we find him in Lima, on the
approach of Gonzalo Pizarro to that capital, when Zarate was
deputed by the judges to wait on the insurgent chief, and require
him to disband his troops and withdraw to his own estates.
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