 One of Theodor de Bry's engravings, supposedly based on drawings by Jacques LeMoyne, depicting Chief Utina consulting his "sorcerer" before battle | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Extinct as tribe | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| North Florida along the middle St. Johns River | |
| Languages | |
| Timucua language, Agua Fresca dialect | |
| Religion | |
| Native | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Timucua |
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.
In the 1560s, Agua Dulce villages were organized into the chiefdom of Utina, one of the region's most powerful and prominent forces in the early days of European colonization in Florida. Utina had dealings with the French colony of Fort Caroline, and later allied with the Spanish of St. Augustine, who established several missions in its territory. However, the chiefdom declined significantly in the last decades of the 16th century, and the confederacy fragmented into at least three chiefdoms.
The main body of the tribe withdrew south along the St. Johns River, and were known as the Agua Dulce to the Spanish. This chiefdom was largely abandoned by 1680. Additionally, a group of Christianized Agua Dulce migrated east towards St. Augustine, and became known as the Tocoy, but this small chiefdom disappeared by 1616. The Acuera, who spoke a different dialect but appear to have been part of the Utina confederacy in the days of French settlement, also broke away and established their own chiefdom. The Acuera proved more sustainable than the Agua Dulce and Tocoy chiefdoms, but had collapsed by 1680.