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Christopher Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492 led to a rapidly widespread interest in the New World, with all the possibilities for change and discovery that it could have held. Explorers sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, hoping to find something great enough to secure everlasting wealth, their place in history, divine favor, and glory for their homeland. Juan Ponce de Leon was one of these explorers, at least initially, but after spending several years forging the island of Hispaniola into a Spanish colony, his motivations for eventually discovering Florida were much different than usual.

Juan Ponce de Leon was born in about 1460 in Santervás de Campos, in the municipality of Valladolid in Spain. He was born into an ancient family descended from Aragon, and in his youth he served as a page to Ferdinand VII. Still a young man, he joined his fellow Spaniards in the war to take over Granada and expel the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula. Several years later, Ponce de Leon seized the opportunity to make the trans-Atlantic voyage to the New World, although modern historians have begun to refute the claim that he accompanied Columbus on his second voyage to Hispaniola in 1493. Some modern historians insist that he, in fact, accompanied Nicolas de Ovando, who was appointed governor of Hispaniola, to the island in 1502.

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Both outcomes would have led Ponce de Leon to the island of Hispaniola, which today is shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. He quickly began pacifying the island, making sure that the natives were not a threat to the colonists. For his efforts, he was appointed governor of the eastern half of the island, a province called Higuey. He noticed that the natives frequently came in contact with people on the nearby island of Borinquen, which is known today as Puerto Rico. His interest piqued, Ponce de Leon sought information about the island of Borinquen, hoping to have found an untapped source of wealth and resources. Sure enough, it reached his ears that the island contained an abundance of gold, causing Ponce de Leon to acquire permission from the Spanish government to conquer the island. In 1508, his group, consisting of eighty Spanish adventurers and several Indians, landed in Borinquen. Although they most likely expected hostility, the Spaniards were received well, the natives welcoming the newcomers to an island whose natural wealth astonished Ponce de Leon. Not only was the soil plentiful and fertile, but many samples of gold were readily available for the taking.

In 1509, he returned to Hispaniola with a detailed report of his findings on the island, as well with hopes to find reinforcements for further pursuits. There, instead of receiving praise for his efforts at Borinquen, the new governor, Diego Columbus, informed him that Diego Ceron was now in charge of the expedition, and that Ponce de Leon would be his lieutenant. No longer governor of Higuey, Ponce de Leon decided to claim the appointment of governor of Borinquen, and his protector, Ovando, helped him achieve this in the Spanish court in 1510.

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Ponce de Leon founded the first city in Puerto Rico, calling it Caparra, and sent his lieutenant to the southwest to found another city near the Bay of Guanica. Under the thumb of Ponce de Leon’s habit of distributing Indians to his officers to use as labor, the natives of Borinquen, led by Chief Aguinaba, tried to expel the Spanish invaders. Their lack of immunity to Spanish-borne diseases, as well as several defeats against the Spanish themselves, weakened them enough to allow Ponce de Leon to capture the entire island. Meanwhile, the natives that were not killed by disease or battle became laborers for the Spaniards, working in the mines and constructing fortifications.

When Christopher Columbus died in 1506, the Spanish government refused to grant the senior Columbus’s rights of governorship of all of his discoveries to his son, Diego Columbus. The latter fought the ruling in the highest courts of Spanish law, and eventually had the decision repealed. As a result, Ponce de Leon was removed as governor in 1512. Feeling as if his reputation had been soiled, Ponce de Leon decided to explore north of Cuba. His failing health and general malaise, though, left him susceptible to the native legends of a fountain of eternal youth, which was said to exist on an island called Bimini. He gathered many of his former followers and other adventures and set sail on the 3rd of March in 1512 with three ships, outfitted of his own expense. He landed on several islands of the Bahamas, but each time he was told that the fountain lay further to the west. On the 27th of March in 1512, he came within sight of land.

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The abundant vegetation that Ponce de Leon saw prompted him to call his new discovery Florida Island. He sailed along the coast and on the 2nd of April landed a little to the north of the present-day city of St. Augustine, formally taking possession of the land for the Spanish crown, but his search for the fountain of youth proved fruitless. He was also surprised by the courage of the natives, which would have discouraged immediate settlement of the area. Disappointed at having acquired neither gold nor the revitalizing waters of the fountain of youth, he sailed to Spain and obtained the title of Adelantado of Bimini and Florida Island, which allowed him to claim and settle the two lands. In 1515, he returned to Puerto Rico and helped the Spanish garrison overpower the revolting natives, founding the city of Ponce in the south of the island upon victory.

In March of 1521, he set out to conquer Florida aggressively, sailing with two ships and landing about fifty miles south of his initial landing spot nine years before. His attempts to explore the interior of the island were met with strong, furious resistance from the natives. Several encounters with the natives left him with extreme losses of men and resources. On one such encounter, Ponce de Leon was struck by a poisoned arrow, causing the remaining colonists to retreat to Havana, Cuba where soon thereafter, he died. His remains were sent to the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and are currently in the church of San José.

Ponce de Leon was driven in his latter years to explore north and west of Puerto Rico because of his failing health and his forced lack of responsibilities due to political shifting. Due to this, his motivations for the exploration for which he is famous are not those of the typical New World explorer. While gold, glory, and the favor of God would have certainly not have been turned away were they available, Ponce de Leon mainly hoped to find a fabled fountain to restore health to his aging body. Nevertheless, his discovery of Florida paved the way for further colonization of North America, while his efforts in colonizing Hispaniola and Puerto Rico were greatly beneficial to the Spaniards. Ponce de Leon secured his place in history due to the impact that his efforts had on the growing urge to colonize in the early sixteenth century.