Around 1600, the Spanish introduced a new labor system (repartimiento) among the Mocama. The colonial government now required holatas to provide laborers for farming, ferrying, public works construction, and military support. While the elites of Alimacani and other Timucuan towns held on to their power, many Timucua men labored for extended periods under harsh conditions. Those returning from labor projects often spread diseases contracted while working in St. Augustine. Some Mocamas left the region. Those who stayed abandoned outlying towns and moved to Alimacani prior to 1630. By midcentury, the Mocama population was a fraction of what it had been when missionaries first arrived in the 1580s. Although the repartimiento provided much-needed labor and food for the Spanish, it condemned the missionary system to failure.
