|
Dromo's Den
|
|
[Up] [Dromo's Den] Ponce de Leon Biography PONCE DE LEÓN, Juan (c. 1460–1521). A Spanish governor of Porto Rico and discoverer of Florida. He was born at San Servas in the Kingdom of León. After serving as page to a tutor of the royal family, Juan Ponce in 1493 went to America on the second voyage of Columbus. In 1508 he went to Porto Rico and in 1510 was empowered to conquer the island, of which he became Governor. He rapidly acquired a considerable fortune there, so that when Diego Columbus appointed a successor to him, Ponce was able to fit out three ships, with which he started, March 3, 1513, to investigate some stories of a marvelous island named Bimini which the Indians said contained a spring which had wonderful curative properties. There is little in the original narratives to substantiate the legend that this was a Fountain of Perpetual Youth that Ponce was in search of. On March 27 land was sighted. He landed not far from the mouth of St. John's River, and on April 8, on Easter Sunday (Span. Pascua Florida), took possession of the country. A month later, May 8, having explored the coast carefully and having had two unsuccessful encounters with the natives, he doubled the point of the peninsula and started up the western coast. Proceeding to the neighborhood of Pensacola Bay, he then returned to the Florida Keys and crossed to Cuba. Thence he sailed to the Bahamas, where he was on July 25, and after two months more of cruising about the Bahamas he reached home Sept. 21, 1513. Ponce immediately took ship for Spain, where he secured permission to conquer and colonize the island (as he supposed it to be) of Florida. Returning in 1515, he was delayed by the necessity of conquering the Caribs from Guadeloupe who were overrunning Porto Rico and who inflicted several severe defeats upon the Spaniards. It was not until 1521 that he was again ready to set out for Florida. With two ships, carrying 200 men, he proceeded to a harbor, probably Charlotte Harbor or thereabouts, where he landed and prepared to build a settlement. The natives, however, attacked the white men so fiercely that they were soon compelled to reembark. A storm separated the vessels, one of which made its way to Vera Cruz, where it arrived just in season to assist Cortés at a critical period in his conquest. Ponce, who had been dangerously wounded in the knee by the Indians, turned back to Porto Rico in the other vessel, but died before arriving there. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 31-32. |