The Journal
Juan Ponce de Leon was born in 1474, as a young man he was a squire to another noble family, Pedro Nunez de Guzman of the Nunez de Guzman family, Knight Commander of the Order of Calatrava.
There were rumors of large undiscovered lands around Hispaniola, Ponce de Leon took that oppurtunity to gain some fame and fortune. So then in February 1512, Ponce de Leon was contracted rights to discover these new lands. Ferdinand, King of Aragon, funded him the money for Leon to begin his expedition. He was equipped with three ships and 200 men, as he set sailed for Florida starting from Puerto Rico. The three ships names were, San Cristobal, Santiago, and The Santa Maria de la Consolascion.March 27th, Ponce de Leon and his crew reached the northern end of the Bahamas they saw an unfamiliar island what we believe today could be the Great Abaco. Afterwards in April 2, 1513, they spotted another Island Ponce de Leon claimed it to be Florida, in Spanish they called it Pascua Florida, which meant Festival of Flowers, the following day they took control of the land, looked for its resources and settled for oppurtunity.
After they were all settled Ponce de Leon and his crew continued his journey for he was not finished just yet, he seeked out most of the coast for more of what the land had to offer. After five straight days of continuous searching they believed that their search has gone too far and they began to turn back. Ponce de Leon and his crew unfortunately met with a current so strong that one of their ships, San Cristobal, the smallest ship, became lost and unable to be found for two whole days. They were unaware that the current they met was located in the Gulf Stream where maximum force between the Bahamas and Florida meets.
They continued down the coast, May 15 they’ve reached Florida keys and began looking for the western coast of the Florida peninsula, and finally reached the mainland of Florida on May 23. When they anchored at Cape Sable to make some repairs, they were approached by some Native Americans, who at first were interested in trading, but Ponce de Leon seemed to have taken the situation way to seriously and took 8 Native Americans hostage.
They set sailed to the Dry Tortuga, a chain of Islands the captives described, on their way there, they captured large sea turtles and seabirds. They neglected the fact on how the strong current pushed them westward, and they eventually hit Cuba. Ponce de Leon was unfamiliar about his location and became confused. He attempted to retrace his steps and located the Florida Keys, there he was surprised to find another Spanish Ship, Ponce de Leon was suspicious if it was either just salvaging items or he was there to spy on him.
October 19, there expedition ended and they’ve reached Puerto Rico, many skeptical researches today believe that Ponce de Leon was not the first exploerer to locate Florida. With other Spanish explorers at the Bahamas, locating slaves, there’s a high probability that at least one of them landed in Florida.
