Gaspar Ruiz by Joseph Conrad, Fiction, Literary, Historical

Certain individualities grow into fame through their vices and their virtues, or simply by their actions, which may have a temporary importance; and then they become forgotten. The names of a few leaders alone survive the end of armed strife and are further preserved in history; so that, vanishing from men's active memories, they still exist in books. The name of General Santierra attained that cold, paper-and-ink immortality. He was a South American of good family and the books published in his lifetime numbered him amongst the liberators of that continent from the oppressive rule of Spain. . . .