He is attributed with being the first man to settle Puerto Rico and founded it's first settlement which he named San Juan Bautista (now San Juan). He was also the island's first governor. His career in the new world was full of struggles as he fought against Christopher Columbus' son Diego (the Viceroy of the West Indies), to keep his previously granted titles as the governor of Hispaniola's western expanses (where he had forcibly put down native rebellions) and Puerto Rico.
He is most famous for his quest for the fabled Fountain of Youth. However, the legend which has actually made it into many textbooks is only a legend and Ponce de León was never even attributed with looking for or finding the mysterious rejuvenating fountain until long after his death. He did historically mount the first expeditions of discovery into Florida and is also attributed with naming the peninsula (which he first thought was a large island) Pascua Florida (Festival of Flowers) because of the Easter time-frame of its discovery in 1512. The contract authorized him to be it's governor as well as long as he funded the expeditions himself.
Unfortunately, as Disney writers would have us believe, Ponce de Leon's corpse was not left in his bed aboard his landbound nao the Santiago - teetering high atop a hillside in Florida with magic goblets under the bed. LOL!!! Southern Florida and it's ports were well populated by the 1750s. It would have likely been a tourist attraction for visitors – perhaps even the future site of a themepark built around it. Tee hee hee
Historically, the Santiago made it safely home to Puerto Rico. Ponce de León actually met his end as the result of his last expedition of colonization to Florida nine years after it's discovery. The colonists landed on the southwest coast of Florida, in the vicinity of the Caloosahatchee River or Charlotte Harbor. The colonists were attacked by Calusa Indian braves and Ponce de León was wounded by a poisoned arrow. After the attack, he sailed to Havana, Cuba where he died of the wound. His final resting place can be found in an imposing tomb within the crypt of the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
For more, find his full story at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Ponce_de_León
MK
