territory their fort stood, but governor René Goulaine de Laudonnière still sought the favor of the powerful Utina. He sent an expedition that made contact with the Utina and aided them in an assault on the Potano. Later he refused to aid Saturiwa in an offensive against the Utina, straining relations with him. However, when French stores were running low in the spring of 1565, Utina exploited their situation to coerce Laudonnière into sending more military aid. When they realized that Utina was manipulating them, the desperate French kidnapped the chief in order to ransom him for supplies. This led to battle between the French and the Utina, which had grave effects for both sides. The French were unable to secure much food, and eventually released Utina. Later that year, the Spanish, recently established in St. Augustine, sieged Fort Caroline and ejected the French from Florida. The Utina quickly allied with the Spanish. In 1567, the Spanish assisted them against a coalition of the Saturiwa, Potano, and Mayaca, joining them in driving the Potano from their main village. However, over the next two decades the Spanish paid little attention to the Utina. Concurrently the once-powerful confederacy declined significantly and fragmented. Fragmentation By the time Franciscan missionary efforts began in the area in the 1590s, there had been a significant decrease in both population and in the number of remaining villages in the Agua Dulce area. Moreover, there appear to have been at least three smaller, independent chiefdoms in what had formerly been Utina territory. The details of the decline are unclear, but the more devastating warfare and diseases introduced by the Europeans probably contributed. The core part of the chiefdom remained inhabited, but the declining population appears to have withdrawn south, with the administrative center shifting to the village of Antonico. The Spanish referred to the inhabitants as the Agua Dulce or Agua Fresca, the Freshwater tribe. Northern villages that had not been abandoned were at that time under the authority of the Christian chiefs of Tocoy. The Tocoy chiefdom established a new town to the east, closer to St. Augustine. Additionally, the Acuera, who part of Chief Utina's confederacy in the 1560s, had become an independent chiefdom. Agua Dulce chiefdom The Agua Dulce chiefdom inhabited a territory comprising the former center of the Utina chiefdom in what the Spanish called the Agua Dulce province. By 1595 Chief Utina appears