Gasca likewise introduced reforms into the municipal government of the cities; and by financial and other arrangements placed the administration of the colony on such a basis as might afford a fair field for his successors to work on. He had been fifteen months in _Lima_ and nearly three years in _Peru_; and his work being now accomplished, he was able to turn his face toward Spain, with the satisfaction of having been enabled to pay off the loan he had contracted for the war, exceeding nine hundred thousand _pesos_. He had, moreover, saved a million and a half _ducats_ for the Government. The President Gasca had indeed proved himself fully deserving of the confidence which had been reposed in him by the Emperor and his advisers. He was a rare instance even amongst the best governors or statesmen of any country or of any period--one who, like General Gordon in our own time, was unconventional and utterly indifferent to the allurements of wealth, or indeed to any other call but that of honour and duty. Before his departure one more instance of his purity of character--if one were needed--was afforded. The Indian _caciques_, conscious of the benefits which he had rendered their people, and conscious also of the value which all Spaniards hitherto had placed upon the precious metals, offered him a large amount of gold plate in token of their gratitude. On Gasca’s natural refusal to accept it, the poor _caciques_ feared they had fallen under his displeasure. This is not the instance referred to. A number of the colonists, no less grateful for the same reasons, wished to show their esteem in a like manner, and made up a purse for the President of fifty thousand _castellanos_. There could be no harm, they said, in his accepting this on leaving, as it could not be offered with a view to induce favour for the future. When the President returned it, the colonists, without his knowledge, concealed twenty thousand _castellanos_ on board his vessel, which sum, on his arrival in Spain, not wishing to offend them by returning the donative, he distributed amongst the most needy relatives of the donors whom he could discover. [Sidenote: 1550.]