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Engaraving of Juan Ponce de Le贸n by unknown author –

Top 10 Sensational Facts about Juan Ponce de Le贸n

Jan Ponce de Leon was a Spanish explorer and conquistador born in1474 in Santervas de Campos in Valladolid, Spain. He was known for leading the first official European expedition to Florida. Juan Ponce de Leon also served as the first governor of Puerto Rico.

Not much is known about his family, but he was descended from nobility. He served in the Spanish military from a young age and first went to the Americas as a “gentleman volunteer”. In this, he accompanied the famous explorer, Christopher Columbus on his second expedition in 1493.

While much isn鈥檛 known about his birth, he are a few interesting facts about the conquistador.

1.He Grew Up Poor

Though of noble lineage, Ponce de Leon grew up poor in the province of Spain. His father was Pedro Ponce De Cabrera and his mother was Aldonza de Leon who was the illegitimate daughter born out of wedlock to the King Alfonso IX of Leon, hence his noble, though unacknowledged lineage.

He received basic education in Seville where he learned how to read and write. In his youth, he started working as a cavalry assistant for nobles and as a page. Later, he joined the Spanish army where he fought for 10 years before becoming an explorer.

2.Juan Married an Innkeeper鈥檚 Daughter

Ponce de Leon gained useful experience in the military and once Spain’s war with the Emirate of Grenada ended, he looked for new opportunities abroad. It was during Christopher Columbus’s second voyage to the new world that he got his chance to join the expedition.

They anchored off the coast island of Puerto Rico, known then as Borinquen. A few years later, he went on to settle there with his wife Leonora who was an inn keeper鈥檚 daughter. With her, they birthed four children. A son named Luis and three daughters named Isabel, Maria, and Juana. They became the first European family to settle in Puerto Rico.

3.Juan Ponce de Leon Created a Slave Industry in Puerto Rico

Slave Patrol by Frederic B. Schell –

Under Ponce de Leon’s governorship of Puerto Rico, the Spanish settlers prospered at the great expense of the local communities. The Tainos, who were the natives of the island were made to work in the settler鈥檚 farms and gold mines. This unpaid, brutal labor was what is known as slavery.

The Spanish also brought with them new diseases such as smallpox to the local natives that caused them to die in large numbers. The hard labor in slavery and the new diseases brought about by the conquistadors eventually caused large numbers of the Taino population to be decimated over time.

4.He Was Looking for Another Island When He Discovered Florida

Another more interesting fact about the explorer and perhaps more peculiar about him was that he was in constant search of an apparent 鈥淔ountain of Youth鈥�. In his unending search for it, the King gave authorization to Juan Ponce de Leon to gather men and ships to further explore another island that was believed to harbor this fountain.

It is interesting to note that the official paperwork that was filed for this expedition made no note of this fountain., which means it might have just been an unfounded rumor.

5. Juan Ponce de Le贸n Named Florida

Map of the Spanish province “La Florida” by Geronimo Chiaves, Abraham Ortelius –

In April 1513, during his voyage looking for the Fountain of youth, he instead discovered land during Palm Sunday. Due to its beauty, Juan Ponce de Leon called it 鈥淟a Florida鈥�. Which translated means- the island of flowers.

It was around easter time, known also as Pascua Florida, meaning the Festival of Flowers, which influenced the naming decision.

6.Ponce de Leon wasn鈥檛 the First European to Get to Florida

Though he is credited as being the first European to see and set foot on Florida, there is evidence that Spanish ships had been raiding the Bahamas looking for slaves years before he ever began his expedition voyages. Some of this evidence shows the ships may even have gone as far as present-day Florida shores.

7.He Was the First Explorer to Receive Knighthood

Statue of the spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Le贸n by GreaterPonce665 –

Among the conquistadors, Juan Ponce de Leon was the first to be knighted and given a personal coat of arms. This happened upon his return to Spain from Puerto Rico in 1514, where he had left the island in turmoil. He had returned home to report on his Florida expedition and the raging rivalry between him and Diego Columbus who was trying to undermine his authority on the island.

Diego Columbus was Christopher Columbus鈥� first son and nemesis to Ponce de Leon, who he had long suspected was behind the attacks on him and his family, so he wanted to return home and report on the matter. It is during this trip that knighthood was offered to him.

8.Juan Ponce de Leon Had Contracts to Govern

At that time, the King would award governing contracts for managing colonies that had been discovered by the Spanish conquistadors. Ponce de Leon received a contract that allowed him to settle and govern Bimini and Florida, which at the time he still thought to be an island.

9.He is known as The First Conquistador

Juan Ponce de Le贸n’s Conquistador monument by Matthew in Boston –

He is a respected figure for his advancement of the Spanish expansion and for building small empires in the territories he discovered and occupied. His work brought the Spanish empire considerable wealth through gold mines and the enslavement of the local population.

This was the essence of what an actual conquistador was meant to do, hence, Juan Ponce de Leon was the actual first and true conquistador.

10.He Died Away from Home in Cuba

In March 1521, Ponce de Leon returned to southwest Florida with the first large-scale attempt to establish a Spanish colony in what is now the continental United States. However, the native Calusa people resisted fiercely this attempt. Ponce de Leon was seriously wounded in this skirmish.

The colonization attempt was thereafter abandoned, and he died from his wounds soon after returning to Cuba. He was buried in Puerto Rico, and his tomb is located inside the cathedral of San Juan Bautista in San Juan.