 In the face of renewed threats from the surrounding Moro kingdoms of the area, the beleaguered Christian native population of 6,000 including a number of Jesuit priests, moved their settlement farther inland towards the area of modern-day Tetuan, where a Jesuit mission dedicated to Saint Ignatius was built.The Jesuit mission in Basilan, too, held out, albeit having its population drastically reduced by the seemingly endless onslaught by hostile neighbors.The Jesuits, belonging to the aggressive religious expansionists' Society of Jesus, who remained in Zamboanga were historically credited for petitioning Madrid for the reconstruction of the damaged fort in 1666, three years after the last Spanish soldiers vacated their walled post.