 Tausug warriors and slave-traders from Sulu came to Taguima to purchase high-quality magnetic iron ores, which they used for swords, knives and other blades.This profitable trade, helped in large measure by the establishment of Maluso as a major military-naval base of the Sulu Sultanate, eventually gave the island the distinction of being the source of "basih-balan", the Tausug word for magnetic iron.Roughly translated and abbreviated, however, "basih-lan" means "the iron (magnet) trail" or "the iron way".