At length certain of the regidores met in secret council and petitioned the king to send them a judge of residencia, stating that unless relief were afforded the province would soon be depopulated. Castañeda was presently informed of his danger, but gave no heed to the warning. He had but one aim in life, to gather riches by whatever means,[X‑6] and this object he pursued with unshaken purpose. The natives did not regard the Spaniards with greater dread than did the Spaniards their chief magistrate. Many of them departed for the newly conquered regions of Peru, and even the friars, who had faced the hardships of the wilderness, and the peril of torture and death at the hands of savages, were compelled to abandon their labors.[X‑7] * * * * * Until 1531 the vicars of the church of Panamá held ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the province of Nicaragua.[X‑8] In that year Diego Álvarez Osorio, a precentor of the cathedral of Panamá, holding the title of Protector of the Indians, was appointed the first bishop of Nicaragua. His elevation was due to his eminent services in the church and probably also to the fact of his being, as Remesal remarks, "a noble cavalier of the house of Astorga, learned, virtuous, and prudent, with much experience in wholesome government measures."[X‑9] The prelate was ordered to found a Dominican convent at Leon, and the treasurer was commanded to furnish the necessary funds. The royal tithes which were formerly appropriated by the diocese of Panamá, were now to be increased,[X‑10] and applied to the support of the churches and hospitals of Nicaragua. [Sidenote: RODRIGO DE CONTRERAS.]