A 36-year-old Ecuadoran immigrant who lived on Cape Cod died Monday while swimming in Barnstable with his young son and daughter nearby, leaving family members to mourn a man described as kind, hard-working, and devoted to his children.

Jorge Arias of Hyannis was swimming in Joshua Pond with his 4-year-old daughter around 8 p.m. when he slipped under the water and disappeared, according to a Barnstable police report. His 6-year-old son was watching from shore, police said.

Arias’s son swam out to retrieve his sister but could not find their father, police said. The two children stopped a nearby couple to ask for help.

Officers from the Barnstable Police Department and firefighters from Osterville and Hyannis began searching for Arias in the area where his son said he had been swimming, police said.

Divers found Arias’s body at the bottom of the pond about 45 minutes later, the police report said. He was taken to Cape Cod Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

A spokeswoman for the Cape Cod and Islands district attorney’s office said the death, while still under investigation, is being treated as an accident. Authorities would not comment on what caused Arias to dip below the surface.

Arias’s wife rushed to the scene to care for her children, police said.

“She’s really destroyed because Jorge was everything to her,’’ Mario Lliguichuzhca, Arias’s cousin, said Tuesday. “He was a wonderful father.’’

Lliguichuzhca said the family emigrated from Ecuador to Wisconsin about 16 years ago, and moved to Hyannis about eight years later, looking for better opportunities.

Arias worked as a banquet captain at the Cape Codder Resort in Hyannis, officials and family members said.

“He was a very valued employee and was very well liked by all the staff,’’ said Sally Bowles, director of human resources for Catania Hospitality Group, which runs the resort.

The Catholic-Hispanic Community of Cape Cod and Nantucket posted a picture of Arias on its Facebook account with a message of support for his family.

“We unite in prayer and we regret the death of our brother of the community of Cape Cod, Jorge Arias,’’ the organization wrote in Spanish.

The Globe reported recently that immigrants are 42 percent more likely to drown in Massachusetts than the general population, representing 124 of 662 victims between 1999 and 2013. Arias is at least the sixth immigrant to drown in Massachusetts since June.

Globe staff member Maria Sacchetti and Globe correspondent Miguel Otárola contributed to this report. Dylan McGuinness can be reached at dylan.mcguinness @globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DylMcGuinness.