Suluan Island

Suluan Island is a small island in the Philippines, in the province of Eastern Samar. It lies east of Leyte Gulf, near Homonhon Island and Calicoan Island.

It was the first ever landing place of Ferdinand Magellan's Armada after their 98 days Pacific crossing although Samar was their first land sighting. Samar did not have a safe harbor. "They headed to Suluan and dropped anchor for a few hours of respite." (source: Laurence Bergreen's Over the Edge of the World). They then next dropped anchor at Homonhon Island, where they spent a week with the natives, and then to Limasawa, where the 1st ever Christian mass was held March 31, 1521. The name of the Suluan Island might be derived from the Sulu People - from the word Suluan or Suan meaning to light the lamp or candle. Suluan is also name to the People living in Sulu Archipelago - the Tausug together with the ethnic tribes here. (The term "Sulu" means a torch, the one used to give light. Since the island of "Suluan" functions as a Lighthouse island in that part of the Pacific Ocean, thus, the name "Suluan" means appropriately as the place where the lighthouse is,,,and more specifically " The Lighthouse Island". Naming the island according to the Sulu people, The Tausog, is quite far from the truth, except otherwise if the island was once a territory of this tribe. But history says otherwise since the Tausog tribe inhabits the far southwest part of the Philippine Islands, that is, at the westernmost area of the Island of Mindanao.)