The Myth of Ponce de León and the Fountain of Youth
On
April 2, 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León and his crew
became the first recorded Europeans to set eyes on Florida. Legend
holds that they made this discovery while searching for the Fountain
of Youth, a magical water source supposedly capable of reversing the
aging process and curing sickness. A closer look, however, reveals
that the fountain likely provided little to no motivation for their
voyage. In fact, no surviving documents from the time, including
letters from Ponce de León himself, ever mention such a fountain.
Only later did Spanish and U.S. writers connect the two, thereby
turning Ponce de León into a poster boy for gullibility.Tales
of sacred, restorative waters existed well before the birth of
Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León around 1474. Alexander the
Great, for example, was said to have come across a healing “river
of paradise” in the fourth century B.C., and
similar legends cropped
up in such disparate locations as the Canary Islands, Japan,
Polynesia and England. During the Middle Ages, some Europeans even
believed in the mythical king Prester John, whose kingdom allegedly
contained a fountain of youth and a river of gold. Spanish
sources asserted that the Taino Indians of the Caribbean also spoke
of a magic fountain and rejuvenating river that existed somewhere
north of Cuba. These rumors conceivably reached the ears of Ponce de
León, who is thought to have accompanied Christopher Columbus on his
second voyage to the New World in 1493. After helping to brutally
crush a Taino rebellion on Hispaniola in 1504, Ponce de León was
granted a provincial governorship and hundreds of acres of land,
where he used forced Indian labor to raise crops and livestock. In
1508 he received royal permission to colonize San Juan Bautista (now
Puerto Rico). He became the island’s first governor a year later,
but was soon pushed out in a power struggle with Christopher
Columbus’ son Diego.Having
remained in the good graces of King Ferdinand, Ponce de León
received a contract in 1512 to explore and settle an island called
Bimini. Nowhere in either this contract or a follow-up contract was
the Fountain of Youth mentioned. By contrast, specific instructions
were given for subjugating the Indians and divvying up
any gold found.
Although he may have claimed to know certain “secrets,” Ponce de
León likewise never brought up the fountain in his known
correspondence with Ferdinand. “What Ponce is really looking for is
islands that will become part of what he hopes will be a profitable
new governorship,” said J. Michael Francis, a history professor at
the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. “From everything I
can gather, he was not at all interested or believed that he would
find some kind of miraculous spring or lake or body of water.” At
least one historian suggests that perhaps Ferdinand, who had recently
married a woman 35 years his junior, told Ponce de León to keep his
eye out for it. But other experts dispute this.
Either
way, Ponce de León set sail in March 1513 with three ships.
According to early historians, he anchored off the eastern coast of
Florida on April 2 and came ashore a day later, choosing the name “La
Florida” in part because it was the Easter season (Pascua Florida
in Spanish). Ponce de León then journeyed down through the Florida
Keys and up the western coast, where he skirmished with Indians,
before beginning a roundabout journey back to Puerto Rico. Along the
way he purportedly discovered the Gulf Stream, which proved to be the
fastest route for sailing back to Europe.Eight
years later, Ponce de León returned to Florida’s southwestern
coast in an attempt to establish a colony, but he was mortally
wounded by an Indian arrow. Just before leaving, he sent letters to
his new king, Charles V, and to the future Pope Adrian VI. Once
again, the explorer made no mention of the Fountain of Youth,
focusing instead on his desire to settle the land, spread
Christianity and discover whether Florida was an island or peninsula.
No log of either voyage has survived, and no archaeological footprint
has ever been uncovered.
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