fountain
of youth saint augustine
 Don
Juan Ponce de Leon arrived in America with Columbus
on his second voyage, 1493. Leon and his fellows,
not
Columbus, completed Spain's claim to the New World.
Made governor of Puerto Rico in 1510 and later deposed,
Ponce de Leon, at his own expense, equipped an expedition
to the North in 1513. A few years previous, Amerigo
Vespucci had discovered and claimed the South American
continent for Spain and John Cabot the northern
continent for England. Two of the mightiest nations
in the world stood opposed for proprietorship of
half the globe. Ponce De Leon heard Indians tell
of Bimini, a fabulous island in the North. Historians
do not unanimously honor at full value the beautifully
romantic story that Ponce was seeking to find the
fountain of youth. Yet it was not incredible to
men of that day - when the very existence of a New
World was hardly
believable to those who had not seen it with their
own eyes - that those who had touched these shores
should believe in greater magic in this strange
realm. And certainly there is no legend more appropriate
to the beginning of America than that this new land
should offer men a vision of eternal youth. Indeed
it has! With his able navigator, Anton Alaminos,
Ponce sailed and charted the ocean's main artery,
the Gulf Stream, shaping the destiny of oceanic
transport for all time to come. |
