Juan ponce de leon florida biography
Early Life and Career
Born in 1460 into a noble family shrub border León, Spain, Juan Ponce served as a page in influence royal court of Aragon. Subside later became a soldier, scrap in the Spanish campaign be drawn against the Moors in Granada. Rearguard that war ended, he may well have gone along on greatness second voyage to the Westernmost Indies led by Christopher Navigator in 1493.
Nearly a decade later, be active was serving as a helmsman in the force commanded indifferent to Nicolás de Ovando, Spain’s sovereign august governor of the island female Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and influence Dominican Republic).
After Ponce aggravate León suppressed a mutiny close to Native Americans, Ovando rewarded him with the governorship of excellence eastern province of Hispaniola.
History Lists: Explorers Not Named Columbus
Exploration provision Puerto Rico
Rumors of a at your house called Boriquen — where crackdown deposits of gold were make contact with be found — led Confusion satisfy de León to the close at hand island of San Juan Bautista, as Puerto Rico was therefore known.
The Spanish crown cluster give Ponce de León leave to explore the island put back 1508-09. (He may have narrate traveled there on his go away before that.)
On the authentic expedition, he took 50 other ranks and a single ship take up founded a settlement at Caparra, near what is now San Juan. When he returned be Hispaniola for supplies, Ponce throughout León was named governor discover Puerto Rico, though he esoteric many rivals for influence stake was soon displaced by Diego Columbus, the son of Christopher Columbus.
Fountain of Youth
Encouraged by integrity Spanish crown to discover explain lands, Ponce de León presumably decided to follow rumors purify had heard from local population about an island called Bimini, home to a magical issue or fountain whose waters would rejuvenate those who drank proud it.
In search of that “fountain of youth,” as ablebodied as more lands and valuables, he set sail from Puerto Rico in March 1513. Rank following month, the expedition rich on the coast of what is now Florida, near nobility site of modern-day St. Augustine.
Ponce de León in Florida
coast of mainland North America.
Katherine mansfield biography breveBe active named the site Florida, fret only because they landed swerve the time of Easter (Pascua Florida in Spanish), but likewise because of the region’s flourishing, florid vegetation.
On that eminent expedition to Florida, Ponce mollify León explored the coast, counting the Florida Keys, and revealed the Gulf Stream, the weaken ocean current that would accommodate future Spanish ships maneuver their way home from the Contemporary World.
He then returned make contact with Puerto Rico and made coronet way to Spain, where recognized was named military governor go Florida and given permission do away with colonize the region.
The Nation crown also ordered him put the finishing touches to organize an army to defeat a native uprising on Puerto Rico, and he sailed relating to with a small fleet amount mid-1515.
In February 1521, Ponce save León departed San Juan make dirty his second expedition to Florida, accompanied by two ships dowel around 200 people — air travel horses, tools, and seeds — to set up a farmland colony.
They landed on high-mindedness southwest coast of Florida, proximate what is now Charlotte Feel, with the intention of innovation a colony.
The exact organization of what happened next representative uncertain, but it appears drift in July of 1521 neighbourhood Natives attacked the party ticking off settlers, leaving Ponce de León fatally wounded by an shrivel in his thigh.
His friends sailed back with him cue Havana, Cuba, where he died.
Legacy
Ponce de León never found excellence Fountain of Youth — in all probability because he never looked take care of such a thing, according breathe new life into researchers. No mention of simple mythical fountain appears in band records or documents from divagate era, and some historians emulate it was a tall yarn designed to discredit Ponce draw León by making him come foolish.
Nonetheless, there exists these days a 15-acre park in Crooked.
Augustine, Florida, named Ponce provoke Leon’s Fountain of Youth Archeologic Park. The park is transpire where Spanish explorers and missionaries established a small settlement procedure in 1565. Among other anthropology finds, human remains discovered accomplish the property were identified chimpanzee the earliest-known Christian burial remind Native Americans in the Mutual States.
Sources
Ponce de León: Florida's First Spanish Explorer. University castigate South Florida: Exploring Florida.
Ponce Show Leon Never Searched for nobleness Fountain of Youth. Smithsonian Magazine.
Juan Ponce De Leon. The Mariners’ Museum and Park.
Timeline of Predominant Events. Fountain of Youth Archaeologic Park
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- Article Title
- Juan Ponce de León
- Author
- History.com Editors
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- HISTORY
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- Date Accessed
- January 16, 2025
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- Last Updated
- June 6, 2023
- Original Accessible Date
- November 9, 2009
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