Jesuit: Missionary Letters From Mindanao (Volume 2: The Zamboanga-Basilan-Jolo Mission) by Jose S. Arcilla, S.J. (Out of Print)

This second volume of The Missionary Letters from Mindanao by Fr. Jose Arcilla is a compilation describing in meaningful details the work of the Zamboanga Mission which actually included Basilan and jolo. Like that of the Rio Grande Mission, the fundamental aim of the Zamboanga Mission was to ultimately Christianize the inhabitants through humanitarian and spiritual endeavors. But unlike the Rio Grande strategy which effectively used the Tamontaka Model as a means of attracting and nurturing slaves who wanted to escape and dissenters as a counterforce to Moro influence for short and long term response to Moro dominance, the Zamboanga missionary work was focused on the revival and strengthening of earlier footholds of Spanish colonization in the Subanen country of the Zamboanga Peninsula. But the new thrust of the Mission was the building of a nucleus of Jesuit missionary endeavors after their return to Mindanao in 1859. The new visita was called Tetuan. From here the Jesuit thrust extended to nearby Basilan where the Sulu sultanate had extended politico-cultural influence over the Yakan people for a long time. Subsequently Jolo was included in the Jesuit missionary work. Why the new Society of Jesus pursued such a difficult burden at the sacrifice even of life could only be attributed to a new orientation since its second founder, Father Roothaan, took over the leadership of the society.