Juan Ponce de Léon conquered the island of Puerto Rico, discovered Florida, explored its coast and made a failed attempt to start a settlement there.
Juan Ponce de León was born somewhere around 1460 in San Tervás de Campos, León, from impoverished nobility. He first visited the New World on Columbus's second voyage in 1493, and settled there in 1502.
After a governorship of Higüey (on Hispaniola), in 1508 he left to conquer an island further east, which he called San Juan de Puerto Rico (now Puerto Rico). He established a colony, and brought the island under Spanish rule. In 1509 he was named governor of Puerto Rico, but in 1511 he was relieved from this duty for political reasons.
For his next exploit, Ponce de Léon set out to find an island rumored to lie north of Cuba, called Bimini. About Bimini there were legends going around of a Fountain of Youth. Someone who drank from this fountain was said to be cured of all his illnesses and to retain his youth. Ponce de Léon may well have hoped to find this fountain.
Ponce de Léon left Puerto Rico on 3 March 1513, sailing in a northwestern direction, skirting the Bahamas. On 27 March, he first saw the mainland of Florida, which he called Tierra La Florida, because he discovered it on Palm Sunday (Pascua Florida in Spanish). On 2 April he landed, just north of present-day St. Augustine, and remained there for six days.
Ponce de Léon and his pilot, Antón de Alaminos, who would pilot several more voyages of discovery and in his time was the person best acquainted with the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, followed the coast southward, rounded the Florida keys, and explored Florida's west coast northward, possibly as far as Pensacola Bay, before returning to Puerto Rico.
The expedition was an important one. Not only was Ponce de Léon de first European of whom we are certain he visited the territory of what is now the United States, but also he had found the Bahama Channel, which gave a shorter route between Cuba and Europe. Alaminos, who had noticed the unusually strong contrary current at Florida's south coast, is now considered the discoverer of the Gulf Stream.
The king honored Ponce de Léon with a knighthood and governorship of Florida, but it would take until 20 February 1521 before he left from Puerto Rico with an expedition to colonize what Ponce de Léon still thought was the island of Florida. He landed on the west coast, and attempted to establish a colony, which was probably either near the mouth of Caloosahatchee River, or on Sanibel Island. However, the fledgling colony soon suffered from Indian attacks, and had to be abandoned. Ponce de Léon himself had been mortally wounded, and he died shortly after arrival back in Havana (Cuba), in July 1521.
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This page, part of Discoverers Web was created by Andre Engels.