Juan Ponce de León was an amazing Spanish explorer. He was born in Santervas de Campos in León, Spain in the year 1460. De León was born in a noble family. He was well educated and learned several languages, physics, geometry, mathematics, and astronomy. Juan Ponce de León was a Roman Catholic. This voyager made a glorious discovery.
Juan Ponce de León became a voyager because of riches. De León had heard about gold and the Fountain of Youth. The Fountain of Youth is a legend. It was believed that the fountain had miraculous magical powers that could transform any old person that drank from it young. De León desired to possess the gold and to drink from the magical fountain. These riches were said to be located in Bimini. As a reward for De León’s service to Spain he was chosen and granted permission to find Bimini.
Ponce de León traveled north of Puerto Rico on March 3, 1513 with two hundred men accompanying him. De León had three ships. The ships were Santa Maria, Santiago, and the San Cristoba ships. While traveling to Bimini, he explored the Bahamas along the way. On his journey, De León did not face as much as trouble as Christopher Columbus. All voyagers face trouble on sea but some troubles are more severe than others. The place where Juan Ponce de León was traveling was close to the equator so therefore it was not extremely cold.
Once Ponce de León reached his destination he saw a superb sight. The crew landed on a beautiful sandy beach. They gazed their eyes upon birds, flowers, animals and butterflies. The island seemed remarkably pleasant. Ponce de León called the land "La Florida." Florida means "flowery" in the Spanish language. He arrived in Florida in the Easter season. Another story is that he named Florida after the Easter season which is "Pascua de Florida" in Spanish.
The explorer did not find riches but they found a gorgeous place. Juan Ponce de León did not meet any settlers or people on Florida. He found flowers, animals, birds, and butterflies when he went to Florida. They resources that the crew found were not much but water. The explorers sailed farther along the coast and tried to land, but the people of the Ais tribe targeted arrows and darts at the Spaniards. The tribe wouldn't let them reach shore.
On April 21, 1513 the three ships began sailing south along the east coast of Florida. Ponce de León sailed into the Gulf Stream unintentionally. The explorers continued to sail south of the east coast of Florida. The Ais tribe was ready to attack. They did not want the Spaniards to go ashore and explore. The three ships made a stop on May 8, 1513 on a small group of islands. No one was living there but there were a number of sea turtles on these islands. Therefore he named the islands Dry Tortugas Islands which means Dry Tortoise Islands.
Juan Ponce de León traveled on many voyages. He went to many islands but the people that were settled there would not let the voyagers explore the area. When Ponce de León returned back to his homeland many things had changed because the explorers had been gone for about eight months. The Arawak had attacked his hometown. The town was burned to the ground. His house was gone when he came back. Luckily his family was safe. In conclusion, Juan Ponce de León is a consequential and great explorer of all times!
