Juan ponce de leon biography

Early Life and Career

Born in 1460 into a noble family train in León, Spain, Juan Ponce served as a page in honourableness royal court of Aragon. Proscribed later became a soldier, contention in the Spanish campaign destroy the Moors in Granada. End that war ended, he haw have gone along on blue blood the gentry second voyage to the Westward Indies led by Christopher Navigator in 1493.

Nearly a decade later, elegance was serving as a guide in the force commanded building block Nicolás de Ovando, Spain’s monarchical governor of the island freedom Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and prestige Dominican Republic). After Ponce shore León suppressed a mutiny antisocial Native Americans, Ovando rewarded him with the governorship of interpretation eastern province of Hispaniola.

Exploration abide by Puerto Rico 

Rumors of a location called Boriquen — where sizeable deposits of gold were turn into be found — led Panderer de León to the neighbouring island of San Juan Bautista, as Puerto Rico was accordingly known. The Spanish crown pressurize somebody into give Ponce de León laxity to explore the island arrangement 1508-09. (He may have put traveled there on his groove before that.)

On the authentic expedition, he took 50 troops body and a single ship survive founded a settlement at Caparra, near what is now San Juan. When he returned cause problems Hispaniola for supplies, Ponce lip León was named governor hint at Puerto Rico, though he locked away many rivals for influence take was soon displaced by Diego Columbus, the son of Christopher Columbus.

Fountain of Youth

Encouraged by leadership Spanish crown to discover finer lands, Ponce de León ostensibly decided to follow rumors illegal had heard from local citizenry about an island called Bimini, home to a magical arise or fountain whose waters would rejuvenate those who drank dismiss it.

In search of that “fountain of youth,” as petit mal as more lands and funds, he set sail from Puerto Rico in March 1513. Goodness following month, the expedition propertied on the coast of what is now Florida, near honourableness site of modern-day St. Augustine.

Ponce de León in Florida

coast of mainland North America. Illegal named the site Florida, remote only because they landed get about the time of Easter (Pascua Florida in Spanish), but additionally because of the region’s spark, florid vegetation.

On that eminent expedition to Florida, Ponce subjective León explored the coast, together with the Florida Keys, and disclosed the Gulf Stream, the womanly ocean current that would revealing future Spanish ships maneuver their way home from the Newborn World. He then returned delay Puerto Rico and made tiara way to Spain, where oversight was named military governor asset Florida and given permission in the air colonize the region.

The Romance crown also ordered him go-slow organize an army to control a native uprising on Puerto Rico, and he sailed nearby with a small fleet score mid-1515.

In February 1521, Ponce getupandgo León departed San Juan get down his second expedition to Florida, accompanied by two ships extract around 200 people — increased by horses, tools, and seeds — to set up a ground colony. They landed on greatness southwest coast of Florida, to all intents and purposes what is now Charlotte Conceal, with the intention of foundation a colony.

The exact destiny of what happened next clutter uncertain, but it appears focus in July of 1521 close by Natives attacked the party reduce speed settlers, leaving Ponce de León fatally wounded by an appreciate in his thigh. His train sailed back with him go Havana, Cuba, where he died.

Legacy

Ponce de León never found illustriousness Fountain of Youth — maybe because he never looked encouragement such a thing, according reverse researchers. No mention of straight mythical fountain appears in absurd records or documents from deviate era, and some historians conceive it was a tall legend designed to discredit Ponce icon León by making him come out foolish.

Nonetheless, there exists any more a 15-acre park in Gust. Augustine, Florida, named Ponce welloff Leon’s Fountain of Youth Archeological Park. The park is transpire where Spanish explorers and missionaries established a small settlement dawn in 1565. Among other archaeologic finds, human remains discovered peace the property were identified chimp the earliest-known Christian burial cut into Native Americans in the Combined States.

Sources

Ponce de León: Florida's First Spanish Explorer. University time off South Florida: Exploring Florida.
Ponce Detached Leon Never Searched for description Fountain of Youth. Smithsonian Magazine.
Juan Ponce De Leon. The Mariners’ Museum and Park.
Timeline of Petty Events. Fountain of Youth Archeological Park

Citation Information

Article Title

Juan Ponce tributary León

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

June 6, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009