Juan Ponce de León

• Born: c. 1460
• Birthplace: Tierra de Campos, Palencia, Leon (now in Spain)
• Died: July 1, 1521
• Place of death: Havana (now in Cuba)

Spanish explorer

Ponce de León was the first European discoverer of Florida and, more important, the Bahama Channel and the Gulf Stream, which proved invaluable to Spanish treasure ships making the passage from Mexico to Spain.

Area of Achievement Exploration

Early Life

Historical facts about the early life of Juan Ponce de León (WAHN ponts day lee-OHN) are limited. Born of uncertain parentage, Ponce may have been one of twenty-one illegitimate children acknowledged by Count Juan Ponce de León, a noble of Seville. Ponce probably served as a page to the knight Pedro Núñez de Guzmán, mastering sword and combat skills, the social graces, and religious instructions.

During the late 1480’s, Ponce probably participated in the campaign to drive the Moors out of Spain, which succeeded in 1492. With the wars over, Ponce would have been at loose ends when Christopher Columbus returned triumphantly to Spain in the spring of 1493, boldly claiming the discovery of a New World filled with spices and gold, exhibiting its gold-ornamented Indians and exotic animals, and promising quick fortunes. When Columbus organized his second voyage to colonize the new lands in late 1493, foot-soldier Ponce was among the eager volunteers.

Life’s Work

On September 25, 1493, according to Fernández de Oviedo’sHistoria general de las Indias (c. 1535-1557), Ponce left with Columbus’s expeditionary force of seventeen ships, twelve hundred men, and six priests, bound for the island of Hispaniola (now called Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Arriving in late October or early November, Ponce and the other volunteers followed Columbus’s orders of establishing the new settlement of Isabella. Ponce survived the bad food and drink, the malarial swamps, and the unfamiliar climate that afflicted the volunteers. He and the others were expected to press the Caribbean Indians into slavery, forcing them under threat of torture to clear and plant fields, tend cattle, or mine for gold.

Between 1494 and 1502, Ponce most likely returned to Spain but came back to Hispaniola, living in Santo Domingo from 1502 to 1504 and in Salvaléon from 1505 to 1508. During these years, Ponce’s soldiering abilities and his rising social status on the island made him a favorite of Governor Nicolás de Ovando. He married a prominent innkeeper’s daughter named Leonor, secured an impressive dowry from his father-in-law, and fathered three daughters and a son. When the Indians of the eastern province of Hispaniola rebelled and massacred Spaniards in 1504 because of cruel Spanish treatment, Ponce helped put down the rebellion and hanged its leader. Governor Ovando then appointed Ponce as deputy governor of the rebel province.

Finding little gold in the rebel province, Ponce developed farms, equitably distributing land grants and Indian slaves, building permanent stone buildings for defense, and creating a long-term commitment to developing the island’s economy. Now in his thirties, the dauntless conquistador was also a devout Christian and an honest administrator, with a pleasing, ruddy-hued face. Still, he wanted more than financial success from agricultural endeavors. He looked eastward, toward the nearby island of Borinquén, a legendary cache of gold.

Between 1506 and 1508, Ponce sent Governor Ovando coded information about the possibility of gold on Borinquén (now called Puerto Rico) and secretly led a preliminary exploration of the island. Ponce, as captain of the militia, made friendly contact with the native Indians of Borinquén, who helped him to find gold deposits and led him to an excellent harbor for his ships. In 1508, Ponce claimed Borinquén for the Spanish Crown, establishing farms that later produced casava bread and other staples.

In 1509, King Ferdinand II appointed Ponce acting governor of Borinquén. Ponce became a wealthy and powerful man, encouraging Spanish settlers and gold seekers to make their fortunes on the island. He controlled the distribution of land grants, licensed the native Indian-slave trade, and mined for gold. At the harbor near Caparra (now called San Juan), he built warehouses, a causeway, docks, roads, and some fortifications. On October 26, 1510, he opened a foundry for smelting and refining precious metals.

Ponce’s island became increasingly popular with Spanish settlers from 1509 to 1511 because of his administration, the abundant food supply, and the availability of Indian slaves. Yet the native Indians suffered terrible abuses and torture. Some Indians resigned themselves to a hopeless future; others did not resist because they believed the Spanish were immortal and godlike. This belief persisted until the Indians drowned a lone Spaniard and allowed his body to decompose. Once convinced that the Spaniards were mortal, the Indians planned a bloody uprising. While Ponce was away from the island in early 1511, rebel Indians wiped out the most notorious abuser of Indians, Cristóbal de Sotomayor, and his settlement. Ponce, commanded to put down the spreading rebellion, gathered an army that fell on the rebellious Indians, killing many in a series of skirmishes and returning others to slavery. Although Ponce was more lenient in his treatment of the indigenous than most Spaniards of his time, he did not hesitate to destroy Indian rebels or to kidnap them from other islands to serve as laborers.

Also in 1511, political enemies in Spain forced an ailing King Ferdinand to replace Ponce as governor of Borinquén with Diego Columbus, nephew of the discoverer of the Americas. For a time, Ponce and his supporters found themselves under house arrest, and their properties were confiscated by the Columbus faction. On hearing what had happened, Ferdinand insisted that restitution be made to Ponce and his followers. After dismissing Ponce as governor, the king curiously sent messages to Ponce in June or July, 1511, urging him to negotiate a contract to discover and settle new lands to the north, such as the legendary island of Bimini, which promised much gold and a fabulous fountain that made the old young again.

No historical evidence exists that Ponce actually sought the “fountain of youth” during his voyage to discover Bimini in 1513. The first mention of the marvelous fountain in Bimini may be found in Antonio de Herrera’s account of Ponce’s voyage, Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos (c. 1549-1625). Historians have speculated that perhaps Ponce simply reported the Indian legends, that he may have wished to inflame the passions of those whose support he needed to make his voyage successful, and that perhaps the aged Ferdinand wanted the fountain’s curative powers to restore his health and enable him to father a son. At any rate, Ferdinand issued a contract on February 23, 1512, appointing Ponce adelantado, or governor, over all lands he discovered. Ponce agreed to pay all expenses of the venture, build a settlement, and provide the king his usual one-fifth share of the proceeds.

On March 3, 1513, Ponce and his followers sailed to what is now called the Bahama Islands, finding the Bahama Channel but not Bimini or its fabled riches. They reached the eastern coast of present-day Florida on April 2, probably going ashore the next week somewhere between Saint Augustine and the St. Johns River to claim possession of the land for Spain. Believing his discovery an island, Ponce named it La Florida (meaning “land of flowers”) to honor the Catholic observance of Easter. By late April, Ponce’s ships sailed southward until they ran into the strong current of the Gulf Stream, which forced them back toward land. Landing, the voyagers encountered several ferocious attacks by Indians. Proceeding to the tip of Florida, Ponce’s ships moved through the Florida Keys, then sailed up the west shore, doing some trading with North American Indians.

By late May or early June, Ponce and his voyagers anchored probably near present-day Charlotte Bay, only to be driven off by a hissing cloud of arrows and hordes of Indians in canoes. Ponce ordered his other ship to continue the exploration while he returned to Puerto Rico by mid-October, 1513. While Ponce failed to find the promised gold or the fountain of youth, he had discovered Florida and, more important, the Bahama Channel and the Gulf Stream, which later expedited the movement of Spanish treasures from the Caribbean to Spain.

During the early part of 1514, Ponce sailed to Spain, reporting his discoveries to Ferdinand and seeking approval for his colonization plans. After giving the king five thousand gold pesos, Ponce on September 27, 1514, received his contract, which called for him to colonize the lands, convert the indigenous population to Catholicism, captain an armada to destroy the cannibalistic Carib Indians, and pay all expenses for the venture.

From 1515 to 1521, Ponce spent much of his time and energy in wiping out the marauding Caribs, who threatened Spanish dominance in the Caribbean by preying on Spaniards and their Indian allies. During the interim, Ponce also busied himself with domestic matters, such as arranging the marriages of his daughters to prominent men on Borinquén; remarrying on his first wife’s death and then burying his second wife; and devoting much of his increasing wealth to religious and charitable purposes. As an influential politician, Ponce became involved in the intense power struggle after the death of Ferdinand in 1516 and the accession of Charles I of Spain.

Ponce postponed his earlier plans for settling Florida until late February, 1521. Little is known about his second expedition other than he took equipment and supplies for establishing a self-sufficient colony. Somewhere on the west coast of Florida, probably on one of the islands in Charlotte Harbor, he and his followers unloaded their gear and constructed some dwellings and a chapel. Unfortunately for the Spaniards, they misjudged the reception of the indomitable Caloosa Indians and went ashore with too small a force of soldiers. In the ensuing battle, the Indians used fire-hardened reed arrows to pierce the Spaniards’ chain armor, causing many deaths. Ponce received a severe arrow wound in the thigh and bled heavily. He and the other battered survivors made their way to Havana, Cuba, where Ponce died of his infected wounds. He was buried at San Juan, Puerto Rico. Ponce’s heirs did not seek to continue his efforts in settling Florida. His son became a friar, while his daughters’ descendants became prominent in Puerto Rico and Central America.

Significance

After his death, Ponce de León’s achievements tended to be forgotten in the wake of public acclaim for other conquistadores’ exploits and their fabulous discoveries of gold and treasure in the New World. Ponce’s name mistakenly became associated with the fruitless search for the fountain of youth. Yet Ponce’s exploration of the Caribbean resulted in the colonization of and creation of economic prosperity on the islands. As a noted farmer, he became instrumental in raising self-sufficient food supplies for all Spanish-maintained islands in the Caribbean. As a negotiator skilled in working with various Indian chieftains, Ponce left a legacy of relatively humane treatment of the Indians, a legacy the priests on the islands continued by pressuring Spaniards who treated the Indians cruelly to mend their ways.

Although other explorers such as John Cabot and Amerigo Vespucci claimed to have discovered Florida earlier, Ponce de León received official credit because his 1513 voyage was made under Spanish auspices and officially recorded. Ponce’s discovery of Florida laid the foundation of a Spanish heritage in Florida, linking it culturally to the Caribbean and Latin America. More important, Ponce’s exploration of Florida’s coastlines resulted in his marking both the Gulf Stream and the Bahama Channel, allowing expedient passage of Spanish treasure ships from Mexico to Cuba to Spain itself. Ponce de León’s discoveries helped Spain maintain its dominance over other European powers during the ensuing era of conquest.

Bibliography

Bolton, Herbert E. The Spanish Borderlands: A Chronicle of Old Florida and the Southwest. Reprint. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996. Surveys the history of the discovery, exploration, and development of Florida and the Southwest by the Spanish. Includes bibliographic references and index.

Devereux, Anthony Q. Juan Ponce de Léon, King Ferdinand, and the Fountain of Youth. Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Company, 1993. Draws on Spanish archival information about Ponce’s life, filling in the historical gaps.

Dolan, Sean. Juan Ponce de Léon. New York: Chelsea House, 1995. A highly readable biography with vivid illustrations of life in the New World.

Fuson, Robert H. Juan Ponce de Léon and the Spanish Discovery of Puerto Rico and Florida. Blacksburg, Va.: McDonald & Woodward, 2000. Seeks to counter the traditional accounts of Ponce de Léon as a naive and ineffective explorer searching for the fountain of youth. Emphasizes his honesty, trustworthiness, basic competence, and relatively humane treatment of indigenous peoples. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, and index.

Kenny, Michael. The Romance of the Floridas: The Finding and the Founding. New York: AMS Press, 1970. Part 1 covers Ponce’s contributions to later Spanish settlements in Florida. Defends the Catholic Church’s role in the Spaniards’ enslavement of the Indians.

Kerby, Elizabeth P. The Conquistadors. New York: Putnam, 1969. Compares Ponce de Léon’s contributions to those of such conquistadores as Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, and others.

Pérez de Ribas, Andrés. History of the Triumphs of Our Holy Faith Amongst the Most Barbarous and Fierce Peoples of the New World. Translated by Daniel T. Reff, Maureen Ahern, and Richard K. Danford. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1999. First published in 1645, this history of the Spanish missions in northern New Spain from 1591 to 1643 begins with an “Approval of Fray Juan Ponce de Léon.” Includes maps, bibliographic references, and index.

Rienits, Rex, and Thea Rienits. The Voyages of Columbus. London: Hamlin, 1970. Provides information on the political times in which Ponce lived. Richly illustrated.

Related article in Great Events from History: The Renaissance & Early Modern Era

1493-1521: Ponce de León’s Voyages.