 His Manila sojourn included a few years of imprisonment at Fort Santiago, as well as an unconfirmed conversion to Catholicism.To further strengthen his naval superiority in the Sulu Sea, several Tausug warriors were sent to establish a base on the northernmost island of the Sulu Archipelago, which until then was called Taguima, after the Tagihamas (descended from the Orang Dyaks and ancestors of the modern-day Yakans who are the acknowledged natives of the place).This base was built on the island's southwestern coast facing Sulu, an area already thickly populated by Tausug traders and fisherfolk.