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Ponce de Leon Juan
(1460—1521)

Juan Ponce de León was a Spanish conquistador. He was born in Santervás de Campos (Valladolid). As a young man he joined the war to conquer Granada, the last Moorish state on the Iberian peninsula.

He accompanied Christopher Columbus on the latter's second voyage to the New World. He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish Crown. He is also notable for his voyage to Florida, the first known European excursion there, as well as for being associated with the legend of the Fountain of Youth, which was said to be in Florida.

It is thought that Ponce de León first landed on the site where Cockburn Town is, on Grand Turk in the Turks & Caicos Islands but soon settled in Hispaniola. He helped conquer the Taínos of the eastern part of Hispaniola and was rewarded with the governorship of the Province of Higuey that was created there. While there, he heard stories of the wealth of Borinquen (now Puerto Rico), and he sought and received permission to go there.

In 1509, Ponce de León founded the first settlement in Puerto Rico, Caparra. As a result, Ponce de León was named Governor of Puerto Rico in 1509. Ponce de León and the other conquistadors forced the Tainos to work in the mines and to construct fortifications. The Tainos died in great numbers after exposure to the European diseases the sailors brought with them, to which they had no immunity. Ponce de León, however, became rich while serving as Governor.

In 1506, upon the death of Christopher Columbus, who had been appointed lifetime military governor of his discoveries, the Spanish authorities refused to grant the same privilege to his son Diego Columbus. The Spanish Crown by then had selected Ponce de León to colonize and govern the island of Puerto Rico. In the meantime Diego Columbus had taken his claim to the top court in Madrid and won his rights: Ponce de León was removed from office in 1512. Feeling that his good name had been damaged and not wishing to serve Diego, Ponce de León obtained title to explore the areas north of Cuba.

According to a popular legend, Ponce de León discovered Florida while searching for the Fountain of Youth. Though stories of vitality-restoring waters were known on both sides of the Atlantic long before Ponce de León, the story of him searching for them was not attached to him until after his death. In his Historia General y Natural de las Indias of 1535, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo wrote that Ponce de León was looking for the waters of Bimini to cure his sexual impotence. A similar account appears in Francisco López de Gómara's Historia General de las Indias of 1551. Then in 1575, Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, a shipwreck survivor who had lived with the Native Americans of Florida for 17 years, published his memoir in which he locates the waters in Florida, and says that Ponce de León was supposed to have looked for them there. Though Fontaneda doubted that de León had really gone to Florida looking for the waters, the account was included in the Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas of 1615. Some historians have argued that the search for gold and the expansion of the Spanish Empire was far more imperative than the "search" for the fountain or slaves. The actual location of the fountain itself may have been situated in the Bay of Honduras instead of Florida or the Bahamas.

Ponce de León equipped three ships at his own expense, and set out on his voyage of discovery and conquest in 1513. On March 27, 1513, he sighted an island, but sailed on without landing. Between April 2–8 he landed on the east coast of the newly "discovered" land at a point which is disputed, but was somewhere on the northeast coast of the present State of Florida. Although the most commonly accepted location is Saint Augustine, Florida, evidence indicates Ponce came ashore further south near the present location of Melbourne Beach. Ponce de León claimed "La Florida" for Spain. He named the land La Florida, meaning flowery, either because of the vegetation in bloom he saw there, or because he landed there during Pascua Florida, Spanish for Flowery Passover, meaning the Easter season. Pascua Florida Day, April 2, is a legal holiday in Florida.

Ponce de León then sailed south along the Florida coast, charting the rivers he found, passed around the Florida Keys, and up the west coast of Florida to Cape Romano. He sailed back south to Havana, and then up to Florida again, stopping at the Bay of Chequesta (Biscayne Bay) before returning to Puerto Rico.

Ponce de León may not have been the first European to reach Florida. He encountered at least one Native American in Florida in 1513 who could speak Spanish. One historian suggests the English John Cabot was the earliest arrival to the Florida peninsula, where he purportedly sailed around it.

During the expedition the Spanish discovered the Gulf Stream current, which soon became used as the primary return route from the Caribbean to Spain.

In 1521 Ponce de León organized a colonizing expedition on two ships. It consisted of some 200 men, including priests, farmers and artisans, 50 horses and other domestic animals, and farming implements. The expedition landed on the southwest coast of Florida, in the vicinity of Caloosahatchee River or Charlotte Harbor. The colonists were soon attacked by Calusa Indians and Ponce de León was injured by a poisoned arrow to the shoulder. After this attack, he and colonists sailed to Havana, Cuba, where he soon died of the wound. His tomb is in the cathedral in Old San Juan.

Spain, 1960, Ponce de Leon

Spain, 1960, Ponce de Leon

Turks & Caicos, 1972, Juan Ponce de Leon

USA, 1982, Juan Ponce de Leon