Thus Marroquin was left to contend almost alone with the idolatry of the natives and the godlessness of the colonists. The work was difficult and progress slow. The settlers were too absorbed in other matters, in house-building, gambling, and drinking, to give much heed to religion. The church was unattended, the church rates were unpaid, and the neglect became so general that eventually laws were passed to enforce due observance of religious rites. In May 1530 it was publicly cried in the streets of Santiago that, by order of the governor and the cabildo, all the artisans of the city must, on the day of Corpus Christi, walk in procession before the holy sacrament, as was customary in Spain. The penalty for non-compliance was fixed at thirty pesos, one half of the amount being assigned to the church and the remainder to the city. In February 1533 a law was passed making attendance at divine service compulsory, every citizen being required to attend mass on Sunday, under penalty of three days' imprisonment or the payment of three pesos de oro. This measure of course served but to widen the breach between the bishop and his flock, and in June of the same year we learn that the regidor Antonio de Salazar stated to the cabildo, that there were no means of paying Marroquin the stipend allotted to him. Notwithstanding all discouragements, however, he resolved that the settlers should not lack for spiritual guidance. [Sidenote: LAS CASAS.] At the beginning of the year 1536 Bartolomé de Las Casas was residing at Leon, there engaged in a controversy with Rodrigo de Contreras, the governor of Nicaragua, the story of which will hereafter be related. In 1531 he had passed through Santiago on his way to the South Sea, and Marroquin had then an opportunity of making the acquaintance of the great apostle of the Indies. In common with the more enlightened of the colonists he would fain have had him take up his abode in their midst. But Las Casas was bound on one of his many missions of mercy, though his efforts were destined to prove futile. He was journeying toward Peru, armed with a royal cédula forbidding the conquerors in that land, and all their followers, to deprive the natives of their liberty under any pretext whatever. No entreaties could induce him to abandon his undertaking, and embarking at Realejo he reached his destination at the end of the year. There, what man could do, he did; but such were the political disturbances then prevailing that his efforts were lost. Urged by members of his own order, he reluctantly abandoned the field and returned to Nicaragua. To him the prelate now applied for aid, representing the sore need of a larger force of ecclesiastics, and begging him to come to Santiago and reopen the deserted convent. The invitation was accepted, and Las Casas with his fellow Dominicans established their order permanently in Guatemala.