Around 1750 he led his people into Florida where they settled around Payne's Prairie, part of what the Spanish called tierras de la chua, "Alachua Country" in English.
Ahaya fought the Spanish, and sought friendship with the British, allying with them after Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain in 1763, and staying loyal to them through the American Revolutionary War.
The center of the hacienda de la Chua was located on a bluff overlooking a sinkhole, now called the "Alachua Sink", that drains Paynes Prairie.
The Spanish called a large area in the interior of Florida west of the St. Johns River, tierras de la Chua.
In the late 1720s the Oconee people moved to the Chattahoochee River, among the Hitchiti- and Mikasuki-speaking Lower Towns of the Muscogee Confederacy.
[14][13] In 1740, James Oglethorpe, the governor of the Province of Georgia, mounted an invasion into Spanish Florida, laying siege to its capitol, St. Augustine.
The Spanish government tried to entice peoples from the Lower Towns of the Creek Confederacy to move to unoccupied lands in Florida, but were unable to supply enough gifts to satisfy them.
[18] The Oconee found abundant game and fish in the area, as well as many feral cattle and horses, descendants of the herds on Spanish ranches which had been abandoned early in the 18th century.
The various Muskogean-speaking bands, who were coming to be known as Seminoles, continued to harass the Spanish, pushing them back into St. Augustine and San Marcos (on the Gulf coast south of the old Apalachee Province).
[20][d] In 1763, when Spain ceded Florida to the British following the Seven Years' War, in exchange for territory west of the Mississippi River, Ahaya was overjoyed.
[25] Ahaya traveled to St. Augustine in 1764 to meet with John Stuart, Indian Superintendent of the Southern Department of British North America.
Philoke, from Ahaya's town of Cuscowilla, who was the father of two of the Seminoles involved in the killing, was given a great medal by the British.
[29] In the early 1770s, Jonathan Bryan of Georgia hatched a scheme to acquire a large area of land in Florida.
Bryan persuaded chiefs of the Lower Towns of the Muscogee Confederation to cede lands in Florida, including the area around the Alachua Savanna, to him.
Ahaya was shocked when the bold man traveled as far south as Payne's Prairie to carve his name into a red oak tree, but his allies quickly intervened.
Bryan backed down, saying that he had not purchased a large amount of land, but had merely leased grazing rights to a small area.
Ahaya always responded when called on by Governor Tonyn to help repel rebel invasions from Georgia, which were often led by the same Jonathan Bryan who had tried to grab the Alachua Seminole's land.
Ahaya welcomed Bartam, called him Puc Puggee, or "the flower hunter," and gave him free rein to explore his lands.
Ahaya's people served Bartram a sweet "thin drink", and a jelly made from the roots of a local Smilax, related to sarsaparilla, and sweetened with honey.