Although the ecclesiastics were held in little respect by a majority of the Spaniards, there is sufficient evidence that they labored faithfully in their calling. When Fray Toribio de Motolinia came from Guatemala, in the year 1528, to join certain Flemish friars then resident in Nicaragua, he founded at Granada the convent of Concepcion,[X‑43] and having a knowledge of the native language, was successful in his efforts, giving special care to the baptism and conversion of children. His stay was of short duration; but by others the work of christianizing the natives was continued with vigor. Gil Gonzalez is said to have baptized thirty-two thousand.[X‑44] Hernandez and Salcedo also baptized large numbers. Pedrarias, inasmuch as this great work had been accomplished without his intervention, affected contempt for such summary methods of conversion, and ordered an investigation to be made by Francisco de Bobadilla, a friar provincial of the order of Mercy, and by the public notary Bartolomé Perez. Diligent search was made by these officials, but it was found that the barbarians had either forgotten or never understood the truths of Christianity, and Bobadilla was obliged to perform this holy work anew. This friar baptized twenty-nine thousand and sixty-three persons in the province of Nicaragua, during a space of nine days,[X‑45] and later, between the 1st of September 1538 and the 5th of March 1539, fifty-two thousand five hundred and fifty-eight were baptized, though, as Oviedo says, "by no means could they be called converted." On the 29th of August 1540, Hernando de Alvarado and Fray Juan de Padilla started from Granada toward the South Sea by way of Coiba,[X‑46] and were everywhere well received. When crosses were erected the natives adorned them with roses, and brought offerings of whatever they valued most. Some years later Fray Lorenzo de Bienvenida and thirty others left Yucatan for the province of Costa Rica[X‑47] to continue the work of conversion in those parts, and many may have fallen victims to their pious zeal. I may mention the sad fate of the martyr Fray Juan Pizarro. While laboring in one of the most remote districts of Nicaragua, he was seized by drunken savages during the celebration of one of their feasts, dragged over the rocks, beaten till he was almost lifeless, and then hanged; his murderers completing their work by burning down a church which he had erected at his own expense. * * * * * [Sidenote: INDIAN BORDER TROUBLES.]