Juan Ponce de León
Juan Ponce de León was an effective but cruel explorer for much of his blood-soaked career, but merits inclusion on this list because of the ludicrous aim of one of his voyages. He was probably born in 1474, and his surname testifies to a privileged and aristocratic upbringing also evidenced by his serving as a squire to a fellow nobleman. After becoming a soldier and fighting the Moors during the re-conquest of Spain in 1492, his next notable action came in 1493 when he enlisted as a ‘gentleman volunteer’ on our old friend Christopher Columbus’s second voyage to the Americas.
After years of obscurity, Juan Ponce de León surfaced again in 1504, taking an active part in the Higüey Massacre, an event so brutal that Bartolomé de las Casas, a Spanish Dominican friar, attempted to report it to the authorities. Ponce de León clearly impressed his betters, however, as he was made governor of the newly conquered territory. His first foray into exploration came with the discovery and settlement of Puerto Rico, where he served as governor before being ousted by Christopher Columbus’s son, Diego, in 1511. Ponce de León now had his sights set on a much bigger prize.
According to contemporary sources, Ponce de León set out in 1513 to find the Fountain of Youth. In Historia general y natural de las Indias (1535), Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés explains that Ponce de León was seeking the waters of Bimini to cure his aging. Two other sources make the same claim. If the legend is true, Ponce de León was outrageously credulous. What is known is that Ponce de León was sailing around the Bimini area when he reached Florida in 1513, which name he gave to the state, before returning to Puerto Rico a year later.
Having failed to discover the Fountain of Youth, Ponce de León had one more terrible expedition to make, again to Florida, in 1521. This time he aimed to set up a permanent colony, and brought 200 men and a multitude of livestock. Unfortunately, Ponce de León did not count on the reaction of the locals, who responded to the presence of foreigners by attacking them before they could establish a colony. Ponce de León was fatally wounded with a poisoned arrow, and the settlement plans discarded. Given his military background and past viciousness, this defeat represents a serious oversight.
