. The island was historically inhabited by an indigenous coastal population of
Mapuches known as the
Lafkenches. The first European to document Mocha was
Juan Bautista Pastene on September 10, 1544, who named it
Isla de San Nicolas de Tolentino. According to
Juan Ignacio Molina, the Dutch captain
Joris van Spilbergen observed the use of
chilihueques (a South American camelid) by native
Mapuches of Mocha Island as
plough animals in 1614. Mocha Island was regularly visited by
pirates and
privateers from the
Netherlands and
England.
Francis Drake and
Olivier van Noort are known to have used the island as a supply base. When Drake was visiting it during his
circumnavigation of the globe he was seriously hurt by its Mapuche inhabitants.
Richard Hawkins, Drake's cousin, also passed with his ship the
Dainty. In 1685, the
Mapuche were transported by Governor
José de Garro to a
reducción on the plain on the right bank of the
Bio Bio River called the Valley of Mocha that later became the location of the modern city of
Concepción, Chile. The waters off the island were inhabited by
sperm whale, including
Mocha Dick, who was depicted by American explorer and author
Jeremiah N. Reynolds in his published account, "Mocha Dick: Or The White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal" in May, 1839 in
The Knickerbocker magazine in New York. Mocha Dick was one of the inspirations for the fictional whale Moby Dick in the 1851 novel
Moby-Dick by
Herman Melville. coastal area with Mocha Island in the distance
Polynesian contact In December 2007 several human skulls with Polynesian features, such as a pentagonal shape when viewed from behind, were found lying on a shelf in a museum in
Concepción. These skulls originated from Mocha Island. ==Geography==