Ponce De Leon Essay, Research Paper
Ponce de Leon was a crewman and adventurer for Spain. He had been given governorship of
Hispaniola where he shortly discovered that on Puerto Rico gold was found. He shortly conquered
the island and was given governorship of it. From the gold he became really affluent. He shortly
learned of an Indian narrative of an island called Bimini. On the Island There were purportedly lots if
gold and pearls and a mystical fountain that could reconstruct 1s youth.
Ponce de Leon asked for and received permission to suppress and settle in the island of
Bimini. On March 3, 1513 he sailed from Puerto Rico with three ships. Sailing around the
northwest corner of Cuba, he so looked for Bimini among the Bahaman Islands. Finally, on
Easter Sunday, March 13, he landed on the seashore near present twenty-four hours St. Augustine. He called the
land Pascua Florida. After seeking a few yearss for gold, pearls, and that elusive fountain, and
happening none of them, he turned south.
Along the sou’-east seashore of Florida near the Indian River, they met the Ais Indians. The
Ais called out to Ponce de Leon, so he went ashore. They so tried to take the boat from the
Spanish. In the resulting battle, an Indian clubbed a Spaniard on the caput, ensuing in an all twenty-four hours
conflict between the two. From a captured Indian, they learned that the land was called Cautio by
the Ais. Incidentally, the Bahaman Indians called the land, Canico or Cancio.
From at that place, the expedition sailed s
outh around the Florida keys, and up the west seashore of
Florida to an country near the contemporary Sanibel Island. There they conflict with the Calusa Indians,
led by their head, Cacique Carlos. Again, there was an all twenty-four hours fight, which led to the Spaniards
retreat. Turning southbound across the Gulf of Mexico, the adventurers came across a group of
islands where they replenished their nutrient supply with the polo-necks on the islands. They named
them Tortugas, after the polo-necks. From at that place, they returned to Cuba, so back to the Bahamas,
so Puerto Rico, seven months subsequently.
The King of Spain knighted Ponce de Leon and made him governor of Florida. He besides
commanded him to settle the island and repress the Carib Indians, who were busting the indigens
of Puerto Rico. The Caribs were known for their maritime abilities, traversing the Caribbean in
immense canoes with every bit many as 50 people in them. Their ferocious combat ability kept Ponce de Leon
from returning to Florida until 1521.
Ponce de Leon left Santa Domingo with two ships transporting two 100 settler and all
sorts of domestic animate beings. They landed on the west seashore of Florida near Charlotte Harbor,
where the Calusa had driven them off earlier. Before they could raise edifices, they were
attacked, and Ponce de Leon wounded with a toxicant pointer. The settlers got into their ships and
left- one ship was blown to the seashore of Mexico ; the other, with Ponce de Leon, reached Cuba
where he died of his lesion.
