TIMUCUA

extinct North American Indian tribe that inhabited the northeast coast of Florida. Their name has been given to a group of closely related languages. The estimated population of Timucuan-language speakers was 13,000 in 1650, with 8,000 speaking Timucua proper. Their first European contact was probably with the expedition of Ponce de Len in the 16th century. They were later missionized by the Franciscans, who compiled a grammar of their language. In the early 1700s their territory was invaded by the Creek Indians and the English, and the last knowledge of the Timucua was sometime after 1736, when the remnants of the tribe moved to the area near the present Mosquito Lagoon, Fla. Presumably some of them were absorbed by the Seminole.