The Spanish first encountered the Mayaca in 1566 while attempting to ransom some
Frenchmen held by the Indians. Several villages near the Atlantic coast were reported to owe allegiance to Mayaca. At that time Mayaca appears to have been allied with the
Mocama, or
Agua Salada Timucua chief
Saturiwa against the
Agua Dulce (Freshwater) Timucua. In 1567 the Mayaca joined with the
Saturiwa and the
Potano, another Timucua people, against the Agua Dulce, which was defeated with Spanish aid. Spanish
Franciscan friars first visited the Mayaca late in the 16th century. The chief of the Mayaca had been converted to Christianity by 1597, but a mission,
San Salvador de Mayaca, was not established until later. That mission is not mentioned in Spanish records for most of the 17th century. Missionary activity resumed again by 1680, at Anacape (San Antonio de Anacape) and Mayaca. By this time, Chachises (or Salchiches), Malaos (or Malicas) had become part of the population in Mayaca province, while refugee
Yamassees had become the majority of the population. By the 1690s missions had been established at Concepción de Atoyquime, San Joseph de Jororo and in Atisimmi, in what had become the Mayaca-Jororo Province, and some Spanish ranches operated in the area. Disturbances in 1696 and 1697 led to the murders of a friar and some Indian converts. Peace was restored, but in 1708 raids by Indians allied with
English colonists in the
Province of Carolina drove part of the Mayaca to seek refuge around
St. Augustine. Others of the Mayacas moved south to the eastern side of
Lake Okeechobee, which was named "Lake Mayaca" on maps in the 1820s (
Port Mayaca, on the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee, is a remnant of that name). In 1738 and 1739 a series of battles between the Mayaca living at Lake Okeechobee and their allies the Jororo and Bomto (or Bonita) on one side and the
Calusa,
Pojoy and Amacapiras on the other side, together with a raid by the Uchise on the Pojoy, resulted in some 300 deaths. Some Mayaca were still living near Lake Okeechobee in 1743. ==Related tribes==