Butuan

Butuan was a Hindu Bisaya port polity on the Agusan River in northeastern Mindanao, known for gold and balangay boats. The Nanhai Zhi records its conquest by Brunei in 1304; it later regained its freedom.

In 1521 Rajah Siagu of Butuan met Magellan's expedition at the islands' first Catholic mass. Spain assigned encomiendas in 1571, and a Jesuit mission followed in 1596, bringing Butuan under colonial rule. Islam had made only superficial headway there by the sixteenth century.