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Beginning in the second half of the 16th century, the Kingdom of Spain established a number of missions throughout La Florida in order to convert the Native Americans to Roman Catholicism, to facilitate control of the area, and to obstruct regional colonization by other Protestants, particularly, those from England and France. [1] Spanish Florida originally included much of what is now the Southeastern United States, although Spain never exercised long-term effective control over more than the northern part of what is now the State of Florida from present-day St. Augustine to the area around Tallahassee, southeastern Georgia, and some coastal settlements, such as Pensacola, Florida. A few short-lived missions were established in other locations, including Mission Santa Elena in present-day South Carolina, around the Florida peninsula, and in the interior of Georgia and Alabama.
The missions of what are now northern Florida and southeastern Georgia were divided into main four provinces where the bulk of missionary effort took place. These were Apalachee, comprising the eastern part of what is now the Florida Panhandle; Timucua, ranging from the St. Johns River west to the Suwanee; Mocama, the coastal areas east of the St. Johns running north to the Altamaha River; and Guale, north of the Altamaha River along the coast to the present-day Georgia Sea Islands. These provinces roughly corresponded to the areas where those dialects were spoken among the varying Native American peoples, thus, they reflected the territories of the peoples. Missionary provinces were relatively fluid and evolved over the years according to demographic and political trends, and at various times smaller provinces were established, abandoned, or merged with larger ones. There were also ephemeral attempts to establish missions elsewhere, particularly further south into Florida.
The priests and religious that traveled with the early conquistadors notwithstanding, the 1549 expedition of Father Luis de Cancer and three other Dominicans to Tampa Bay was the first solely missionary effort attempted in La Florida. It ended in failure with de Cancer being clubbed to death by the Tocobaga natives soon after landing, [2] which diminished Catholic interest in La Florida for sixteen years. [3]
The first Spanish missions to Florida, starting with the foundation of St. Augustine in 1565, were attached to presidios. Between 1559 and 1567, ten presidios were established at major harbors from Port Royal Sound in modern South Carolina to Pensacola Bay on the northern Gulf of Mexico in an attempt to prevent other European powers from establishing bases on land claimed by Spain. [4] Most of the presidios were unsustainable; San Mateo (near modern Jacksonville, Florida) was destroyed by the French, the entire garrison at Tocobago was wiped out, and most of the other presidios were abandoned due to a combination of hostility from the native inhabitants, difficulty in providing supplies, and damage from hurricanes. [5] By 1573, the only remaining presidios in Florida were at St. Augustine and Santa Elena on Paris Island, South Carolina. Santa Elena was abandoned in 1587, leaving St. Augustine as the only sizeable Spanish settlement in La Florida. [6]
The missions at the presidios were staffed by the Jesuits. Due to the hostility of the Native Americans, which resulted in the killing of several of the missionaries, the Jesuits withdrew from the mission field in La Florida in 1572. Franciscan friars entered into La Florida in 1573, but at first confined their activities to the immediate vicinity of St. Augustine. The Franciscans began taking their mission to the Guale and Timucua along the Atlantic coast in 1587. Starting in 1606 the Franciscans expanded their mission efforts westward across northern Florida along a primitive but lengthy road known as El Camino Real. [7] The road and the network of missions stretched across the Florida panhandle through the territory of the Timucua and reached the Apalachees in the vicinity of modern Tallahassee by 1633. [8]
The mission system functioned for decades, as the Spanish convinced most village leaders to provide food and labor in exchange for tools and protection. Regular waves of European-borne disease along with conflict with Carolina colonists to the north weakened the system as the 1600s progressed. It collapsed in the aftermath of Queen Anne's War, when colonists from the Province of Carolina, along with their Creek allies, killed or kidnapped much of the remaining native population of Spanish Florida except in areas near St. Augustine and Pensacola. [9] The network of missions was virtually destroyed by Carolina Governor James Moore's incursions into northern Florida between 1702 and 1709, a series of attacks that were later called the Apalachee massacre. Dozens of missions and surrounding villages were abandoned by the early 1700s and their locations lost, as was much of the former route of El Camino Real. As a result, only a few mission sites in Florida have been found and positively identified. [7]
The mission buildings of La Florida were built with posts set into the ground. The walls were palmetto thatch, wattle and daub or plank, or left open. The floors were clay, and scholars believe the roofs were thatched. The church buildings in the missions averaged some 20 m by 11 m. Other buildings situated within a palisade included a convento to house the missionaries, a barracks for the soldiers, and often a separate kitchen. [10] [11]
The Spanish used the term "province" for the territory of a tribe or chiefdom. There was no fixed definition of province boundaries. As tribes and chiefdoms lost population and importance, the provinces associated with them would no longer appear in the records. Other provinces expanded to take in their territories. Most of the people taken into the mission system were Timucua speakers. Three major groups that spoke other languages were also taken into the mission system. The Guale Province was the territory the Guale, and covered what is now coastal Georgia and the Sea Islands north of the Altamaha River. The Guale were among the first people to be taken into the mission system, in the 1580s.
Later in the 17th century, Guale Province was sometimes referred to as extending southward and including the region otherwise known as Mocama. The Apalachee Province included the Apalachee people, who spoke a Muskogean language, and were brought into the mission system in the 1630s. It occupied the easternmost part of what is now the Florida Panhandle, along the Gulf of Mexico coast from the Aucilla River to the Ochlockonee River. The Spanish established one early mission among the Mayaca people, a non-Timucuan speaking tribe south of the Agua Fresca, and resumed efforts among them, and their relatives, the Jororo, in the late 17th century. This district, which became known as the Mayaca-Jororo Province, occupied an area to the south of Lake George, on the upper (southern) St. Johns River. [12] [13] [14] [15]
The Timucua-speakers, most of whom were brought into the mission system in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, were initially seen by the Spanish as living in a dozen or so provinces, with the Acuera, Ibi, Mocama, Potano, Timucua (in its restricted sense, north of the Santa Fe River, and east of the Suwannee River), Utina, Yufera, and Yustaga provinces becoming major components of the mission system. During the 17th century, as Timucuan populations declined and the locations of Spanish missions were consolidated along the road between St. Augustine and Apalachee, most of these provinces were gradually consolidated in Spanish usage into a Timucua Province stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Aucilla River. [16]
The Mocama Province included the coastal areas of southeastern Georgia and northern Florida from St. Simons Island south to St. Augustine, extending westward to approximately the distance of the St. Johns River in Florida. [17] It included some of the earliest missions to be established, and served the Mocama, a Timucuan-speaking group of the coastal areas. Important missions established in the Mocama Province were San Juan del Puerto, among the Saturiwa chiefdom, and San Pedro de Mocama, among the Tacatacuru.
The Timucua Province was initially established to serve the people known to the Spanish as the Timucua (called the Northern Utina by modern scholars), who spoke the "Timucua proper" dialect. Eventually, however, it absorbed several other Timucua-speaking provinces and became the largest of all the Florida mission districts. Following shortly after the success of the Mocama missions, the Spanish established missions among the Agua Fresca (Eastern Utina or Freshwater Timucua) along the middle St. Johns River, from roughly present-day Palatka south to Lake George. Similarly, the missions among the Potano, centered on what is now Gainesville, were considered part of the Potano Province, while missions to the Acuera, who lived around the Ocklawaha River, were part of the Acuera Province. Most of these areas were eventually considered part of the larger Timucua Province, in some cases because native populations had declined to the point that they could no longer support multiple missions. (The missions in Acuera Province were abandoned after the Timucua rebellion of 1656, although non-Christian Acueras continued to live there for another 40 years.) At this stage the Timucua Province included the area between the St. Johns and Suwanee rivers. Later, the Yustaga Province, which served the Yustaga who lived to the west of the Suwanee as far as the Aucilla River, was added, and the Timucua province covered the majority of north central Florida. The coastal area south of the Mocama Province and St. Augustine was known as La Costa; though this area had some Timucua speakers, it did not see much missionary activity, perhaps because it was less densely populated. There were also a few missions established to the north and west of the Apalachee Province. [18]
This table includes doctrinas, missions that normally had one or more resident missionaries, but does not include visitas, which never had a resident missionary, and had less substantial church buildings where services were conducted by visiting missionaries.
Mission Name | Province or Region | Active Period [upper-alpha 1] | References |
---|---|---|---|
Apalo [upper-alpha 2] | Potano | Unknown | [ref 1] |
Ajacán [upper-alpha 2] | Virginia | 1570 | [ref 2] |
Assumpción del Puerto or Assumpción de Nuestra Señora [upper-alpha 3] | Apalachee | 1675 | [ref 3] |
Attissimi, or Atisme, or Jizime | Jororo | 1693–1697 | [ref 4] |
Cofa [upper-alpha 2] (mouth of Suwannee River) | Potano | Unknown | [ref 5] |
Escamau-Orista [upper-alpha 2] | Santa Elena | 1566–1570 | [ref 6] |
Espogache [upper-alpha 2] [upper-alpha 4] | Guale | 1605–? | [ref 7] |
Guale [upper-alpha 2] | Guale | 1568–1570 | [ref 8] |
Guatari [upper-alpha 2] | Santa Elena | 1566–1570 | [ref 9] |
Ivitachuco at Abosaya [upper-alpha 5] | Potano | 1704–1706 | [ref 10] |
Joadi [upper-alpha 2] | Santa Elena | 1566–1570 | [ref 11] |
La Concepción or Santa María de Ayubale | Apalachee | 1655–1704 | [ref 12] |
La Concepción de Atoyquime or Atoquime | Jororo | 1693–1697 | [ref 13] |
La Encarnación a la Santa Cruz de Sábacola or Santa Cruz de Sábacola El Menor | Apalachicola | 1674–1677 | [ref 14] |
La Natividad de Nuestra Señora de Tolomato (Likely the successor to Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Tolomato.) | St. Augustine | 1620s–1702 | [ref 15] |
La Purificación de Tama or Nuestra Señora de Candelaria de Tama [upper-alpha 6] | Apalachee | 1675–1704 | [ref 16] |
Mission to the Calusa | Calusa | 1697 | [ref 17] |
Nombre de Dios | St. Augustine | 1566–1587 | [ref 18] |
Nuestra Señora de la Soledad y San Luís | Pensacola | 1718–1740s | [ref 19] |
Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Tolomato [upper-alpha 4] [upper-alpha 7] | Guale | 1587–1597, 1605–? | [ref 20] |
Ospo or Talapo [upper-alpha 2] | Guale | 1595–1606 | [ref 21] |
"Our Lady of Guadaloupe" (on St. Joseph Bay) [upper-alpha 8] | Pensacola | 1701–1704 | [ref 22] |
Palica [upper-alpha 2] | St. Augustine | Early 18th century | [ref 23] |
San Antón de Carlos | Calusa | 1567–1569 | [ref 24] |
San Antonio de Anacape/Enacape | Agua Dulce | 1587–1655 | [ref 25] |
Señor San Antonio de Anacape/Enacape [upper-alpha 9] | St. Johns River | 1680–1699 | [ref 26] |
San Antonio de Bacuqua | Apalachee | After 1657–1704 | [ref 27] |
San Antonio de los Chines | Apalachee | 1694–1704 | [ref 28] |
San Antonio de Punta Rasa | Pensacola | 1749–1761 | [ref 29] |
San Augustín de Urihica | Northern Utina | 1630-1657 | [ref 30] |
San Blás de Avino | Acuera | 1612–1620s | [ref 31] |
San Buenaventura de Guadalquini (moved to St. Johns River as Santa Cruz de Guadalquini) | Guale/Mocama | 1606-1684 | [ref 32] |
San Buenaventura de Potano | Potano | 1608–1613 | [ref 33] |
San Carlos de Borromeo (in Achercatane or Yatcatane) | Chacato | 1674–1675 | [ref 34] |
San Carlos de los Chacatos [upper-alpha 10] | Apalachee | 1675–1683 or later | [ref 35] [ref 36] |
San Carlos de Çabacola [upper-alpha 11] | Apalachicola | before 1686-1690 | [ref 37] |
San Cosme y San Damián de Cupaica or Cupahica, Escambi, or Escabi [upper-alpha 12] | Apalachee | 1639–1704 | [ref 38] |
San Diego de Helaca/Laca, later moved to San Diego de Salamototo (on St. Johns River) | Acuera | 1645–1689 | [ref 39] |
San Diego de Satuache | Guale | 1616–1675 | [ref 40] |
San Felipe de Alabe [upper-alpha 13] | Guale | 1616–1655 | [ref 41] |
San Felipe (on Cumberland Island) | Mocama | 1675–1678 | [ref 42] |
San Felipe (on Amelia Island) | Mocama | 1689–1702 | [ref 43] |
San Francisco de Chuaquin | Arapaha | 1655–1657 | [ref 44] |
San Francisco de Oconi [upper-alpha 14] | Apalachee | 1655–1704 | [ref 45] |
San Francisco de Potano | Potano | 1607–1706 | [ref 46] |
San Ildefonso de Chamini/Chamile | Arapaha | 1655–1657 | [ref 47] |
San Joseph de Escambe or San José de Escambe | Pensacola | 1741–1761 | [ref 48] |
San Joseph de Jororo | Jororo | 1693–1679 | [ref 49] |
San Joseph de Ocuya or San José de Ocuya | Apalachee | 1655–1704 | [ref 50] |
San Joseph de Sapala or San José de Zapala ( Sapelo Island) | Guale | 1616–1684 | [ref 51] |
San Juan de Aspalaga | Apalachee | 1655–1704 | [ref 52] |
San Juan (de) Guacara (on the Suwannee River) | Northern Utina | 1612–1689 | [ref 53] |
San Juan del Puerto | Mocama | 1587–1702 | [ref 54] |
San Julian | Agua Dulce | 1598–1602 | [ref 55] |
San Lorenzo de Ibihica | Ibi | 1612–1630 | [ref 56] |
San Lorenzo de Ivitachuco | Apalachee | 1612(?)–1704 | [ref 57] |
San Luis de Acuera/Avino | Agua Dulce | 1616–1655 | [ref 58] |
San Luis de Apalachee or San Luis de Talimali [upper-alpha 15] | Apalachee | 1633(?)–1704 | [ref 59] |
San Luis de Eloquale | Acuera | Unknown | [ref 60] |
San Martín de Timucua/Ayacutu/Ayaocuto | Northern Utina | 1610–1659 | [ref 61] |
San Martín de Tomole | Apalachee | 1655–1704 | [ref 62] |
San Matheo de Tolapatafi | Yustaga | 1656–1689 | [ref 63] |
San Miguel de Asile | Yustaga | 1651–1689 | [ref 64] |
San Miguel de Potano | Potano | Unknown | [ref 65] |
San Nicolás de Tolentino | Chacato | 1674–1675 | [ref 66] |
San Nicolás de Los Chatos [upper-alpha 16] | Apalachicola | 1689 | [ref 67] |
San Pedro de Atulteca or San Felipe de Athulteca [upper-alpha 17] | Guale | 1616–1695 | [ref 68] |
San Pedro de Mocama (Cumberland Island) | Mocama | 1587–1655(?) | [ref 69] |
San Pedro de los Chines | Apalachee | 1677(?)–1689(?) | [ref 70] |
San Pedro de Medellin [upper-alpha 18] | Apalachee | 1681 | [ref 71] |
San Pedro y San Pablo de Patale [upper-alpha 19] or San Pedro de Patali | Apalachee | 1655–1704 | [ref 72] |
San Pedro y San Pablo de Potohiriba or San Pedro de Potohiriba | Yustaga | 1630–1705 | [ref 73] |
San Pedro Y San Pablo de Puturiba(to) | Guale | 1597(?)–1604(?) | [ref 74] |
San Salvador de Mayaca | Mayaca | 1655, 1680–1701 | [ref 75] |
San Sebastian | St. Augustine | 1587–1601 or 1602 | [ref 76] |
Santa Ana de Potano [upper-alpha 20] | Potano | Uncertain | [ref 77] |
Santa Catalina de Ajoica or Afuica, Ahoica, Ahojica, Nihoica, Nihayca | Northern Utina | 1655–1685 | [ref 78] |
Santa Catalina de Guale (St. Catherines Island, Sapelo Island and Amelia Island, in succession) | Guale | 1595–1597, 1602–1702 | [ref 79] |
Santa Catalina or Santa María de Guale | Mocama | 1689–1702 | [ref 80] |
Santa Catarina de Guale | St. Augustine | 1711–1717 | [ref 81] |
Santa Clara de Tupiqui (Sapelo River) | Guale | 1595–1597 | [ref 82] |
Santa Clara de Tupiqui (Amelia Island) | Mocama | c. 1616 | [ref 83] |
Santa Cruz de Cachipile | Arapaha | 1655–1657 | [ref 84] |
Santa Cruz de Guadalquini Moved from San Buenaventura de Guadalquini | Mocama | 1684–1695 | [ref 85] [ref 86] |
Santa Cruz de Ytuchafun or Ychuntafun Capoli or Santa Cruz y San Pedro de Alcantara de Ychuntafun | Apalachee | 1672–1704 | [ref 87] |
Santa Cruz de Tarihica | Northern Utina | 1612–1695 | [ref 88] |
Santa Elena de Machaba | Yustaga | 1655–1705 | [ref 89] |
Santa Fe de Toloca/Teleco/Toloco | Potano | 1616–1702 | [ref 90] |
Santa Isabel de Utinahica | Unknown [upper-alpha 21] | 1616 | [ref 91] |
Santa Lucia de Acuera | Acuera | 1655 | [ref 92] |
Santa María de Bacuqua | Apalachee | 1640–1657 | [ref 93] |
Santa María de Loreto | Tequesta | 1743 | [ref 94] |
Santa María de los Angeles de Arapaha | Arapaha | 1630–1657 | [ref 95] |
Santa Maria de la Sena | Mocama | 1602 | [ref 96] |
Santa María de los Yamasee or Santa María de Guale | Mocama | 1675 | [ref 97] |
Santa Rosa de Ivitanayo | Yustaga | 1680s | [ref 98] |
Santiago de Oconi (near the Okefenokee Swamp) | Oconi | Early 16th century - 1655 | [ref 99] |
Santo Domingo de Asao [upper-alpha 22] or Santo Domingo de Talaje [upper-alpha 23] | Guale | 1595(?)–1680s | [ref 100] |
Santo Domingo (Napa or Napoyca) | Mocama | 1602 | [ref 101] |
Tequesta [upper-alpha 2] | Tequesta | 1567–1570 | [ref 102] |
Tocoy [upper-alpha 2] | Aqua Dulce | 1602–1606 | [ref 103] |
Tupiqui [upper-alpha 2] [upper-alpha 4] | Guale | 1569–1570 | [ref 104] |
Table Notes
Table references
San Juan del Puerto was a Spanish Franciscan mission founded before 1587 on Fort George Island, near the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. It was founded to serve the Saturiwa, a Timucua tribe who lived around the mouth of the St. Johns. It was organized by separating them into nine smaller villages. It has an important place in the study of the Timucua, as the place where Francisco Pareja undertook his work on the Timucua language.
The Potano tribe lived in north-central Florida at the time of first European contact. Their territory included what is now Alachua County, the northern half of Marion County and the western part of Putnam County. This territory corresponds to that of the Alachua culture, which lasted from about 700 until 1700. The Potano were among the many tribes of the Timucua people, and spoke a dialect of the Timucua language.
Guale was a historic Native American chiefdom of Mississippian culture peoples located along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 16th century.
The Mocama were a Native American people who lived in the coastal areas of what are now northern Florida and southeastern Georgia. A Timucua group, they spoke the dialect known as Mocama, the best-attested dialect of the Timucua language. Their heartland extended from about the Altamaha River in Georgia to south of the mouth of the St. John's River, covering the Sea Islands and the inland waterways, Intracoastal. and much of present-day Jacksonville. At the time of contact with Europeans, there were two major chiefdoms among the Mocama, the Saturiwa and the Tacatacuru, each of which evidently had authority over multiple villages. The Saturiwa controlled chiefdoms stretching to modern day St. Augustine, but the native peoples of these chiefdoms have been identified by Pareja as speaking Agua Salada, which may have been a distinct dialect.
The Spanish missions in Georgia comprised a series of religious outposts established by Spanish Catholics in order to spread the Christian doctrine among the Guale and various Timucua peoples in southeastern Georgia.
The Surruque people lived along the middle Atlantic coast of Florida during the 16th and 17th centuries. They may have spoken a dialect of the Timucua language, but were allied with the Ais. The Surruque became clients of the Spanish government in St. Augustine, but were not successfully brought into the Spanish mission system.
Apalachicola Province was a group or association of towns located along the lower part of the Chattahoochee River in present-day Alabama and Georgia. The Spanish so called it because they perceived it as a political entity under the leadership of the town of Apalacicola. It is believed that before the 17th century, the residents of all the Apalachicola towns spoke the Hitchiti language, although other towns whose people spoke the Muscogee language relocated among the Apalachicolas along the Chattahoochee River in the middle- to later- 17th century. All of the Apalachicola towns moved to central Georgia at the end of the 17th century, where the English called them "Ochese Creek Indians". They moved back to the Chattahoochee River after 1715, with the English then calling them "Lower Creeks", while the Spanish called them "Ochese".
Mission San Pedro de Mocama was a Spanish colonial Franciscan mission on Cumberland Island, on the coast of the present-day U.S. state of Georgia, from the late 16th century through the mid-17th century. It was built to serve the Tacatacuru, a Mocama Timucua people.
The Chacatos were a Native American people who lived in the upper Apalachicola River and Chipola River basins in what is now Florida in the 17th century. The Spanish established two missions in Chacato villages in 1674. As a result of attempts by the missionaries to impose full observance of Christian rites and morals on the newly converted Chacatos, many of them rebelled, trying to murder one of the missionaries. Many of the rebels fled to Tawasa, while others joined the Chiscas, who had become openly hostile to the Spanish. Other Chacatos moved to missions in or closer to Apalachee Province, abandoning their villages west of the Apalachicola River.
Acuera was the name of both an indigenous town and a province or region in central Florida during the 16th and 17th centuries. The indigenous people of Acuera spoke a dialect of the Timucua language. In 1539 the town first encountered Europeans when it was raided by soldiers of Hernando de Soto's expedition. French colonists also knew this town during their brief tenure (1564–1565) in northern Florida.
The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The various groups of Timucua spoke several dialects of the Timucua language. At the time of European contact, Timucuan speakers occupied about 19,200 square miles (50,000 km2) in the present-day states of Florida and Georgia, with an estimated population of 200,000. Milanich notes that the population density calculated from those figures, 10.4 per square mile (4.0/km2) is close to the population densities calculated by other authors for the Bahamas and for Hispaniola at the time of first European contact. The territory occupied by Timucua speakers stretched from the Altamaha River and Cumberland Island in present-day Georgia as far south as Lake George in central Florida, and from the Atlantic Ocean west to the Aucilla River in the Florida Panhandle, though it reached the Gulf of Mexico at no more than a couple of points.
The Indigenous peoples of Florida lived in what is now known as Florida for more than 12,000 years before the time of first contact with Europeans. However, the indigenous Floridians living east of the Apalachicola River had largely died out by the early 18th century. Some Apalachees migrated to Louisiana, where their descendants now live; some were taken to Cuba and Mexico by the Spanish in the 18th century, and a few may have been absorbed into the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes.
The Agua Dulce or Agua Fresca (Freshwater) were a Timucua people of northeastern Florida. They lived in the St. Johns River watershed north of Lake George, and spoke a dialect of the Timucua language also known as Agua Dulce.
Ocale was the name of a town in Florida visited by the Hernando de Soto expedition, and of a putative chiefdom of the Timucua people. The town was probably close to the Withlacoochee River at the time of de Soto's visit, and may have later been moved to the Oklawaha River.
San Buenaventura de Guadalquini or San Buenaventura de Boadalquivi was a Spanish mission located on St. Simon's Island, Georgia, United States from between 1597 and 1609 until 1684, when pirates burned the mission and its town. The mission moved to the north side of the St. Johns River near its mouth, in present day Duval County, Florida under the name of Santa Cruz de Guadalquini or Santa Cruz y San Buenaventura de Guadalquini for a few years before merging with the mission San Juan del Puerto.
Francisco Menéndez Márquez y Posada was a royal treasurer and interim co-governor of Spanish Florida, and the founder of a cattle ranching enterprise that became the largest in Florida.
Arapaha was a Timucua town on the Alapaha River in the 17th century. The name was also sometimes used to designate a province or sub-province in Spanish Florida.
The La Chua ranch was the largest cattle ranch in Spanish Florida in the 17th century. Cattle ranching became an important part of the economy of Spanish Florida over the course of the 17th century. The La Chua ranch was founded in the middle of the 17th century, and by the end of that century accounted for one-third of the cattle in the colony. Raids by the English of the Province of Carolina and their native allies led to the abandonment of the La Chua ranch early in the 18th century.
The Amacanos were a native American people who lived in the vicinity of Apalachee Province in Spanish Florida during the 17th century. They are believed to have been related to, and spoken the same language as, the Chacato, Chine, Pacara and Pensacola peoples. The Amacano were served, together with other peoples, by a series of Spanish missions during the last quarter of the 17th century.
The Oconi or Ocone were a Timucua people that spoke a dialect of the Timucua language. They lived in a chiefdom on the margin of or in the Okefenokee Swamp in southeastern Georgia. The Oconi first appeared in Spanish records in 1602, but a mission was not established until at least a decade later, with the first record of a mission in 1630. The Spanish twice attempted to relocate the Oconi people to other missions, in 1645 and 1655. The Oconi disappeared from Spanish records after 1655.