Description
Mayaca was the name used by the Spanish to refer to a Native American tribe in central Florida, to the principal village of that tribe and to the chief of that village in the 1560s. The Mayacas occupied an area in the upper St. Johns River valley just to the south of Lake George. According to Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, the Mayaca language was related to that of the Ais, a tribe living along the Atlantic coast of Florida to the southeast of the Mayacas. The Spanish first encountered the Mayaca in 1566 while attempting to ransom some Frenchmen held by the Indians. In 1567 the Mayaca joined with the Saturiwa and the Potano, another Timucua people, against the Agua Dulce, which was defeated with Spanish aid.
Language
The Mayaca language was related to that of the Ais, a tribe living along the Atlantic coast of Florida to the southeast of the Mayacas.
Culture
The Mayacas were not known to practice agriculture to any significant extent, unlike their neighbors to the north, the Utina, or Agua Dulce (Freshwater) Timucua. (In general, agriculture had not been adopted by tribes living south of the Timucua at the time of first contact with European people.) The Mayaca, Jororo and Surruque existed by fishing, gathering shellfish and native plants, and by hunting wildlife. Fish, shellfish, turtle and whitetail deer were among their mainstays. Some Timucuan people combined hunting activities with farming--primarily in the northern third of Florida. They used acorns and hickory nuts to produce cooking oil and a kind of flour. An aquatic root called ache yielded a starch that was important in the Timucuan diet.