Mocama

The Mocama were Timucua-speaking peoples of the Atlantic coast, from southeastern Georgia to northeastern Florida. Their villages occupied islands, river mouths and the neighbouring mainland. At the time of European contact, the principal chiefdoms included the Saturiwa near the St Johns River and the Tacatacuru on Cumberland Island.

French explorers met the coastal peoples in the 1560s. After Spain established itself at St Augustine, Franciscan missionaries founded San Pedro de Mocama on Cumberland Island in 1587, making it a centre for missions serving nearby communities. Disease, warfare and raids from the north reduced the mission towns during the seventeenth century. Survivors moved south toward St Augustine, and in 1763 some descendants of Mocama and Guale people left Florida for Cuba with the departing Spanish.