With a corps of one hundred and ten men he started forth upon his self-imposed mission, expending his own private fortune upon the enterprise,[XXV‑18] enduring great fatigue and hardship, exploring all the coast as far as Boca del Drago and Boca del Flor, and visiting the adjacent islands. His success was remarkable. He gathered the Indians into villages, had them instructed in the faith, and erected churches; but with his retirement from the scene the natives returned to their nomadic life, the villages were deserted, and the churches fell into decay. The intelligence of his labors, when communicated to the king, won for him the title of marqués de Talamanca, but before the royal decree reached him he had turned his back upon the honors of this world, and enrolled himself as a humble brother of Bethlehem, to be thenceforward known as Fray Rodrigo de la Cruz.[XXV‑19] In 1684 the two Franciscans, Melchor Lopez, and Antonio Margil, resumed the work of christianization, and found the paths that had led to the interior overgrown and hidden as if they had never been opened, and the people as fierce and untractable as though no efforts had been made to civilize them. Yet these two priests, without arms or protection, advanced into the interior of the country and reported within five years the baptism of forty thousand Indians and the establishment of fourteen villages. The work was continued with varying success by a number of ecclesiastics, several of whom suffered martyrdom in their cause,[XXV‑20] but the final result of all efforts was failure so complete that, to use the words of Pelaez, "it was as if these mountains were the gates of hell, from within which there was no redemption." * * * * * In connection with the attempted pacification of Talamanca may be mentioned certain missionary expeditions to Tologalpa, the name given to a mountainous country lying between the Desaguadero and the Nueva Segovia river, and peopled by sambos, by the Xicaques, the Lencas, and other tribes[XXV‑21] or admixtures of tribes, differing widely in language, government, and manners. The Spanish government had repeatedly directed inquiries to be made concerning them and the best means of effecting their reconciliation;[XXV‑22] and in letters addressed to the president of the audiencia early in the seventeenth century the king urges that efforts be made for the peaceful conquest of this province.