They traded with the Ais to the north, the Tekesta to the south and the powerful Calusa tribe that ruled southwest Florida. The Jeaga were experts at carving canoes from cypress trees and they navigated Florida’s interior to Lake Okeechobee and throughout south Florida to trade with other tribes. All members of the Jeaga tribe were related through blood or marriage. At their pre-Columbian height they numbered over 2,000 and recent archaeological digs suggest they arrived in the area as long as 5,000 years ago from the Taino culture in the Caribbean. The Jeaga occupied an area that fits almost perfectly within the boundaries of present-day Palm Beach County, from the Boca Raton inlet to just north of the Jupiter Inlet. Apparently, word traveled fast about the strange ironclad men and their monstrous sailing vessels. Ponce de Leon and his men fought off the attackers and docked there for a week before the three ships sailed a little further south and anchored off of Palm Beach ( Abaioa) where they encountered no hostilities. They were met by the Jeaga, Native Americans from a nearby village ( Jobe), who knocked one of the Spaniards unconscious with a staff and wounded two with arrows tipped with bone and fish spines. In late April 1519, Juan Ponce de Leon made landfall at the Jupiter Inlet ( Rio de la Cruz) with two ships, the Santa Maria de la Consolacion and the Santiago, to replenish water and firewood, and wait for a third ship, the Cristobal, to rejoin them.
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