Fountain of Youth Fountain of Youth Bahamian Love Vine (Cassytha Filiformis), Bahamas According to a popular legend, Ponce de León discovered Florida while searching for the Fountain of Youth. Though stories of vitality-restoring waters were known on both sides of the Atlantic long before Ponce de León, the story of his searching for them was not attached to him until after his death. In his Historia General y Natural de las Indias of 1535, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés wrote that Ponce de León was looking for the waters of Bimini to cure his aging.[56] A similar account appears in Francisco López de Gómaras Historia General de las Indias of 1551.[57] Then in 1575, Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, a shipwreck survivor who had lived with the Native Americans of Florida for 17 years, published his memoir in which he locates the waters in Florida, and says that Ponce de León was supposed to have looked for them there.[58] Though Fontaneda doubted that Ponce de León had really gone to Florida looking for the waters, the account was included in the Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas of 1615. Most historians hold that the search for gold and the expansion of the Spanish Empire were far more imperative than any potential search for the fountain.[59][60][61] There is a possibility that the Fountain of Youth was an allegory for the Bahamian Love Vine, which locals brew today as an aphrodisiac.[62] Ponce de León could have been seeking it as a potential entrepreneurial venture. Woodrow Wilson believed Indian servants brewing a brown tea in Puerto Rico may have inspired Ponce de Leóns search for the Fountain of Youth.[63] Arne Molander has speculated that the adventurous conquistador mistook the natives vid (vine) for vida (life) – transforming their fountain vine into an imagined fountain of life.[62] In his memoirs, de Leon writes that he went searching for the Fountain of Youth because an old native woman had told him that her son and husband, among many others, had gone in search to a mystical land to the north named Bimini for this Fountain of Youth. Juan Ponce de Leon, in his oath to the Spanish Crown, swore that if presented with the opportunity to spread the territory of Spain to a new land, he was to search it out and establish a colony. Between voyages Upon his return to Puerto Rico, Ponce de León found the island in turmoil.[44] A party of Caribs from a neighboring island had attacked the settlement of Caparra, killed several Spaniards and burned it to the ground. Ponce de Leóns own house was destroyed and his family narrowly escaped.[44] Colón used the attack as a pretext for renewing hostilities against the local Taíno tribes. The explorer suspected that Colón was working to further undermine his position on the island and perhaps even to take his claims for the newly discovered Florida.[64] Ponce de León decided he should return to Spain and personally report the results of his recent expedition.[44] He left Puerto Rico in April 1514 and was warmly received by Ferdinand when he arrived at court in Valladolid. There he was knighted,[51] and given a personal coat of arms, becoming the first conquistador to receive these honors. He also visited Casa de Contratación in Seville, which was the central bureaucracy and clearinghouse for all of Spains activities in the New World. The Casa took detailed notes of his discoveries and added them to the Padrón Real, a master map which served as the basis for official navigation charts provided to Spanish captains and pilots.[65] During his stay in Spain, a new contract[66] was drawn up for Ponce de León confirming his rights to settle and govern Bimini and Florida, which was then presumed to be an island. In addition to the usual directions for sharing gold and other valuables with the king, the contract was one of the first to stipulate that the Requerimiento was to be read to the inhabitants of the islands prior to their conquest. Ponce de León was also ordered to organize an armada for the purpose of attacking and subduing the Caribs, who continued to attack Spanish settlements in the Caribbean.[67] Tomb of Juan Ponce de León in the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista Three ships were purchased for his armada and after repairs and provisioning Ponce de León left Spain on May 14, 1515 with his little fleet. The record of his activities against the Caribs is vague. There was one engagement in Guadeloupe on his return to Spain and possibly two or three other encounters.[68] The campaign came to an abrupt end in 1516 when Ferdinand died. The king had been a strong supporter and Ponce de León felt it was imperative he return to Spain and defend his privileges and titles. He did receive assurances of support from Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, the regent appointed to govern Castile, but it was nearly two years before he was able to return home to Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, there had been at least two unauthorized voyages to his Florida both ending in repulsion by the Native Calusa Tequesta warriors. Ponce de León realized he had to act soon if he was to maintain his claim. Last voyage to Florida In 1521 Ponce de León organized a colonizing expedition on two ships. It consisted of some 200 men, including priests, farmers and artisans, 50 horses and other domestic animals, and farming implements.[69] The expedition landed on the southwest coast of Florida, in the vicinity of Caloosahatchee River or Charlotte Harbor. The colonists were soon attacked by Calusa braves and Ponce de León was injured when, historians believe, an arrow poisoned with the sap of the Manchineel tree struck his thigh.[70] After this attack, he and the colonists sailed to Havana, Cuba, where he soon died of the wound. He was buried in Puerto Rico, in the crypt of San José Church from 1559 to 1836, when his remains were exhumed and later transferred to the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista
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