Juan Ponce de León

Juan Ponce de León ( * 1460 in Santervás de Campos, Valladolid, Spain, † July 1521 in Havana, Cuba) was a Spanish conquistador.

1493 he took part in Christopher Columbus' second voyage to America. In 1508 he founded Caparra (later San Juan ), the first European settlement in Puerto Rico. He was received by chief Agüeybaná with open arms. Leon was appointed governor, with the original population was later to suffer greatly under his rule.

On March 27, 1513 he sighted for the first time North America (namely Florida) and held it for another island. He is often attributed to the discovery of the Gulf Stream in 1513. In fact, this strong ocean currents fell to his navigator Antón de Alaminos. Originally suspected the conquistador, the warm water came from the Gulf of Mexico. Today we know that come together several factors for the development of the Gulf Stream. Ponce de Leon searched in vain on his expedition to Florida in 1513 after the mythical fountain of youth and discovered the Florida Keys. Maybe he was following the rumor of a Bimini, on the source of eternal youth finds it.

1514 he received permission to the "Island Florida " to colonize, but did not return until 1521 back there. On April 2, 1521, he landed on the east coast of Florida and took the newly discovered land for Spain.

Ponce de Leon and his group were attacked by locals and he was hit by a poisoned arrow. After this attack, he returned to Havana, where he died.

The location of Ponce de Leon in Florida, is named after him.

Fiction

Ponce de León occurs as a very old man on in the novel In Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, of the fourth part of Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides inspired the Pirates -of -the- Caribbean movies. He knows the way to the fountain of youth, after looking in the novel and film Blackbeard.