Juan Ponce de Leon

Juan Ponce de Leon was born in Tierra de Campos Palencia, Spain. As a boy he was hired to deliver messages in royal court. Later he served in many military campaigns against the Muslims until 1492 when they were driven out of Spain. After sailing with Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World in 1493, Ponce de Leon remained in Santo Domingo, an island south of Florida.

As a reward for his service to Spain, Ponce de Leon was given the right to find Bimini, one of the islands in the Bahamas. The "Fountain of Youth" was supposed to be in Bimini. Legend has it that anyone who drank from the fountain would never grow old. Ponce de Leon organized an expedition to find the fountain in March of 1513. He landed near the site of what is now St. Augustine, Florida. He didn't realize he landed in North America. He thought he had landed on an island. He named it Florida because he saw lots of flowers (florida in Spanish means flowery). He was the first European to explorer Florida and he didn't know it! The next day he claimed the land in the name of the King of Spain. Ponce de Leon sailed through the Florida Keys to Cuba and found nothing. Having no luck they turned back and sailed to Spain.

Five years after returning to Spain, Ponce de Leon sailed back on another voyage to Bimini in February of 1521with 2 ships and 200 men. They landed on the west coast of Florida. When they went ashore, they were met by a large group of Native Americans shooting arrows at them. An arrow hit Ponce De Leon. He was taken back to the ship and brought to Cuba. He died in July of 1521 from his wounds.