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Juan Ponce de León [a] (c. 1474 – July 1521 [6]) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador known for leading the first official European expedition to Puerto Rico in 1508 and Florida in 1513.
De Leon returned to the region with a colonizing expedition in 1521, landing near either Charlotte Harbor or the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River. His expedition included 200 men, and several priests were among them. [2] In 1539, Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto landed near present day Port Charlotte or San Carlos Bay.
Despite Spanish efforts to peacefully trade for the gold, the Calusa attacked the ships, prompting Ponce de León to sail away. [1] Convinced that Florida contained sizable amounts of gold, De Leon sailed from Puerto Rico with a colonizing expedition in 1521, landing near either Charlotte Harbor or the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River. His two ...
Spain based her long-standing claim to Florida on the voyage of discovery of Juan Ponce de León in 1513, as well as four other expeditions of exploration. Menéndez, one of the foremost naval officers of his day, had been sent out by King Philip II of Spain with a fleet and 800 Spanish settlers with specific instructions to remove the French ...
In 1526, de Ayllón led an expedition of some 600 people to the South Carolina coast. After scouting possible locations as far south as Ponce de Leon Inlet in Florida, the settlement of San Miguel de Gualdape was established in the vicinity of Sapelo Sound, Georgia. Disease, hunger, cold and Indian attacks led to San Miguel being abandoned ...
The Spanish laid claim to a vast area that included the modern state of Florida, along with much of what is now the southeastern United States, on the strength of several expeditions in the first half of the 1500s, including those of Ponce de Leon and Hernando de Soto.
However, Ponce's 1513 expedition to Florida was the first open and official one. He also gave Florida its name, which means "full of flowers". [18] A dubious legend states that Ponce de León was searching for the Fountain of Youth on the island of Bimini, based on information from natives. [19] [20]
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. The first European known to have explored the coasts of Florida was the Spanish explorer and governor of Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce de León, who likely ventured in 1513 as far north as the vicinity of the future St. Augustine, naming the peninsula he believed to be an island "La Florida" and claiming it for the Spanish crown.