History - Ponce De Leon

Imagine this. You're a young boy growing up in Spain. Your family are of noble blood but not wealthy. Your family name might be known, but you're poor. At bedtime, your mother tells you these fairy tales of great knights and great wars and ancient myths. You begin to dream of being a great knight, a war hero, and sure enough find a way to serve as a squire to your uncle, who is a great knight commander of one of your country's secret societies. When your country and homeland is invaded, you get your chance. Suddenly, you are no longer a boy fueled by fantasy, but a man at war. Have your beleifes in fairy tales faded?
In my opinion and according to legend, Juan Ponce de Leon's fantical beleifes may have faded as he matured but lived strongly at the base of his mind, only to reemerge into light to fuel his determination as an old man. But from where we're at right now in this paper, Ponce is still a boy growing up in the village of Santervas de Campos, a municupality of Castile and Leon, Spain. This is an area that borders Aragon in the east, a fact that will aid Ponce's future as a man.
By way of his blue-blood lineage, Ponce was related to the Núñez de Guzmán family, a major family in the role's of secret societies and the conquering of Mexico, but for now, Ponce is lucky enough to be a young squire to Pedro Núñez de Guzmán. This is a great opprotunity for the boy because of his family's lack of wealth. In those days, when you are poor, the best way to lead yourself to riches and fame is by becomming a knight and a war hero. That is exactly what young Ponce did.
Pedro Núñez de Guzmán was the knight commander of the Order of Calatrava which was a secret society created paralell to the Knights of Templar around the 1100's. Their responsibilities began when the Calatrava castle was captured from the Moslems but the Knights of Templar couldn't keep the castle safe. The king therefore enlisted the help of volunteers warriors and knights and sons of knights from the Cisterian Order. When the Moors invaded, the Order became a key force in the battles that ensued.
In the 1490's, Ponce became an experianced soldier as he travelled the seas as a Privateer, helping attack Moor ships in the 10-year conquest of Grenada in southern Spain. The Moors were primarily a group of muslims from North Africa that arent a well-defined race within itself. The term 'Moor' actually stems from words meaning "brown" or "black" and covered nationalities including Arabs, Berbers, Nigerians, and other African nationalities. When the war ended in 1492, Ponce's military services were no longer needed. He was back home with basicly nothing to do and being of the adventurous spirit, he just couldn't let that last long.
Barely a year of rest had passed when Christopher Columbus announced his second voyage to The New World. He called for volunteers and young Ponce jumped at the idea. He had just helped chase the Moors out of Spain, he felt like he could take on the world. In September 1493, a crew of 1200 set sail for The New World with Columbus as their guide. During the expedition, they anchor on what is modern day Jamaca and discover the hostile tribes of the Arawak and the Carib indians. They also stop in modern day Haiti, establishing a spanish settlement wit the primary focus to hunt for gold but the best known stop on this journey was the stop on modern day Puerto Rico. Ponce de Leon makes the desicion to stay on a quest for gold and wealth in Santo Dominco (what is now known as the Dominican Republic) as Columbus headed back for Spain after about a year sailing around the Carribean islands.
Ponce made his home in Santo Dominico where they did indeed find riches. He also began breeding dogs native to the area in his own kennels where he bread the infamous Becerillo, known as Ponce's 'vicous red dog' in later writings. Eight years passes in history where Ponce basicly falls off of the radar. Some historians beleive that with his new found wealth from the islands, he went back home to Spain only to come back in 1502 with Nicolas de Ovando, the guy given the task to fix everything that wasn't working in the colonies of Hispaniola and the shiny new title of govener by the Spanish Crown.
Ovando, practicly replacing Columbus' status in the islands, had a fond love of the explorers, making personal friendships not only with de Leon, but also with Balboa, de Soto, and Pizarro. His friendship with the men also caused for friendships to be raised between them stemming into a close companionship between Ponce and Balboa, so close in fact that Ponce gave Balboa one of Becerillo's puppies, whom Balboa named Leoncito. The puppy grew to be a great and feared dog in an age where every great man had a great warrior of a dog beside him and was adored by Balboa for his intelligance and power.
"Leoncito would evaluate each situation and respond accordingly. When he was sent to apprehend a native, he would race out and grab the man’s arm in his mouth. If the Indian did not struggle, but came along, he would be lead safely back to Balboa. If the Indian resisted, he would be killed and torn apart immediately. Leoncito was considered to be so valuable that he was awarded the rank of a caporal, including pay and entitlement to share any goods or gold obtained as booty...”
Back in the island colonies, the native Tainos were fighting hard to form an uprising against anything Christian. On the eastern side of the island, (what is now known as the Dominican Republic) Higuey was being over taken by the Tainos. Being the great and heroic soldier and good friends with Ovando, Ponce was put in charge of destroying the offending forces. His dog, Becerillo, also played a major role. When huts of the villages were caught on fire by the Tainos, Becerillo barked an alarm to his masters to wake up. A battle, of course, quickly ensued and Becerillo, raised to be a warrior as well, was right there with the men. According to the story, the battle only lasted half an hour but in that short time, Becerillo alone had killed and mamed thirty-three natives. The indians became terrified of the dog and as the legend has it reported that they would rather go to battle with a thousand Christians then face ten Christians with Becerillo in tow.
Ponce de Leon's quick crush of the Taino's rebellion impressed Ovando and he named his friend and hero the first governer of Higuey. He was also awarded a major land grant where he built his home and slave labor in the form of local indians to work on his new estate. On that estate he built a large stone house which actually still exsists today in Salvaleón de Higüey. This gave Ponce the ability to send for his wife, Leonora, and his children to come and live with him. In his nice comfortable life, Tainos would occasionally come over from what is now known as Puerto Rico and tell stories of the gold and jewels to be found in their local rivers. Much like fairy tales, but attainable, Ponce in his older age began to salivate over the idea of a wealth so vast that his children's children would never again have to worry about money. It didn't take long till he went to his dear friend Ovando for permission to explore the land.
Legend states that he went to the island secretly 1506 or 1507 with only the permission of Ovando to scope out the place. But it's his first official trip over there by orders of Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1508 that really mattered. At the time the island was refered to as San Juan Bautista by the Spaniards and as Ponce dropped anchor and headed inland, he went forth with determination. Sure enough, the one boat load of fifty men set up the first spanish Peurto Rican colony of Caparra and did indeed find the wealth they had been seeking. For a year, the men searched and hunted gold, paying very little attention for farming or planting. They're hearts were set on riches and as their supplies ran thin, they headed back to Hispaniola with their arms full of precious metals.
They arrived back home with great honors and high regard, not to mention their new found extensive wealth. On August 14, 1509 Ferdinand II declared Ponce the govener of San Juan Bauista and was given orders to return to the island to cultivate the new colony. This time, Ponce brought his wife and children with him. Once they arrived, Ponce got right to work. He put the local Tainos indians into an encomienda form of slavery which gave each person interested a certain alottment of native slaves. The master and family would be responsible for teaching the slaves Catholism and the spanish language while the slaves did the labor and farm work and even dug for gold. The problem was the Spaniards weren't exactly nice to the Tainos and along with giving the natives diseases they had never known before, they also treated them in a cruel manner. This lead to yet another Tainos uprising, one of the lasts, in 1511 which Ponce de Leon, now a great and powerful leader, quickly put down with the help of early muzzle loaded firearms and crossbows.
Somewhere between Ponce's new found wealth from his first trip to Puerto Rico to his roll as govener of his new found colony is where history, legend, and myth all entertwine. Ponce de Leon's logs and records for his journey to Florida somehow vanished with the only reports of anyone seeing them being the spanish historian Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas. Tordesillas said that Ponce's records were sparatic with random gaps and his summary of the records relected the same. Yet no one else ever saw the records to prove or dispute what Tordesillas summarized. And in those summaries, there is no mention at all of the Fountain of Youth. Being a historian, how could you and why would you just 'misplace' the actual concrete logs of such an influencial voyage to the New World? Is there a possibility that this so called historian had a hand in doctoring and fabricating the information, purposley hiding the secrets and true reasonings behind why Ponce ever left his colony in Puerto Rico in the first place?
According to the concrete history, Ponce headed out from his colony into unchartered territory for no real reason. Personally, this makes absolutley no sence to me. The man had everything. He had friendships in royalty, wealth beyond what he could have ever dreamed, titles, land, slaves, everything he could ever want... except one thing. Ponce de Leon was aging. Once a boy, he was now an old man, and his life of conquests had worn him down. He was even reportedly impotent. What else could this man want? His youth back. His youth was all he had left to find.
The mythical Fountain of Youth is a fairy tale that has exsisted throughout the world for centuries. In every account, the idea was basicly the same. The fountain of youth was a body of water that restores the youth of anyone who drinks from it.
The ancient greek historian Herodotus who is known as 'the father of history' reported a fountain of youth in Ethiopia, which was the reason for the Ethiopians long lives. In the Alexander Romance, myth and history is entertwined in middle eastern folklore stating that Alexander the Great and a man by the name of Khizr set out to find the legendary 'Fountain of Life' that lies amidst the 'Land of Darkness' beyond the setting sun and western waters. In this legend, the two men seperate paths and Khizr alone finds the fountain of youth and drinks from its waters, making him an immortal God where he is immediatly taken to heaven. The men who followed Khizr didn't drink from it's waters but brought back rocks from the area to find out the rocks were indeed prescious stones. When they tried to return to the fountain, they could no longer find it. In another version of the Alexander romance he travels with his cook, Andreas, and finds the fountain of youth accidently. The two men travel through the Land of Darkness and when they find the peaceful resting spot near a body of water, they stop to eat and rest. Andreas drops one dead salted fish into the water and sees that it magicly springs back to life and swims off and the man immediatly drinks from the waters, all in secret. He also takes some of the water with him, obviously for reasons of greed. When Alexander and Andreas return to their families, Andreas seduces Alexander's daughter with the water and when she drinks it, she is instantly transformed into the goddess Nereis. When Alexander finds them, he throws Andreas into the sea where he is taken to the heavens as a god alongside Alexander's own daughter.
In middle-eastern religion, the myth states that the fountain of youth lies past the Land of Darkness in the far west, near the meeting of two oceans. al-Khadir (whos characteristics are virtually the same as Khizr's from the Alexander Romance) protects the waters from his home which lays on a "green carpet in the midst of the sea" (an island?). The legend of a fountain of youth exsisting also lies in stories from the bible, from people being healed in waters in the River Jordan and the Red Sea to Revalation where there is many mentions of everlasting life and fresh pools of water that are often construed as symbolism for other things in modern day christianity.
The story of The Travels of Sir John Mandeville was a midevil fantasy that was popular after the Moorish rule in Spain. This fact brings me back to young Ponce, merely a boy laying in bed listening to the fairy tales his mother had told him as he let his imagination soar. Maybe one night she told him one of these stories concerning the mythological fountain where with one drink, a man could be young again. The stories would have been known to the explorers at the time, and chances are Ponce had heard them as well. But being only a boy, the legend may have pushed itself back to the depths of his mind as he grew up and persued more reliable goals like wealth and power. Now, as a man, Ponce finally had everything he had ever dreamed of. He was the govener of a developing frontier on a beautiful island. He had aquired wealth and gold and riches over the years, enough to live lavishly for the rest of his life, and the rest of his children's lives. He was a hero, his name was known throughout Spain not only as a war hero, but as a formidable figure in the age of discovery. But somewhere during his time in modern day Puerto Rico he heard the Tainos indians speaking of something, a legend, a fairy tale that he had dreamed of as a boy.
According to the native's stories, The Fountain of Youth was on the land of Bimini near the Gulf of Honduras. At the time, the area was then known as La Vieja. An Arawak cheif named Sequene beleived deeply in the stories told about these magical waters and set out with a group of other beleivers in search of the fountain, never to return. The legend goes on to speculate that they had found the fountain of youth and were living in Bimini as immortals enjoying much wealth and properity. Now, let's keep this Arawak cheif in mind. I promise you, you will hear his name later in this paper.
Ponce de Leon was hooked and combined with his fierce determination, he used his own money to fund a trip of three ships - the Santiago, the San Christobal, and the Santa Maria de la Consolacion - and around two hundred men to set out from Puerto Rico on March 4, 1513. Ponce hired Anton de Alaminos as his pilot, one of the most respected (and expensive) sea-pilots at the time. On March 27th, Easter Sunday, they reached the north end of the Bahamas by sailing northwest. The spaniards refered to the Easter season as Pascua Florida which translated to The Festival of Flowers and after several days on open waters, the ships spotted land. The land was lush, filled with vegitation and wonderment and must have been a merry sight for Ponce as he felt that school-boy giddiness take over that this indeed may be the sight of the fabled fountain. He named the land 'Florida' or land of flowers. On April 3rd, 1513 the men came ashore to this new land.
The actual true landing spot of Ponce and his men is heavily disputed because of those gaps in the summary of the logs but the town of St. Augustine takes the credit. Wherever it was that they landed, they stuck around the basic area for a few days exploring the vegitation and land before deciding to reboard the boats and sail south along the coasts. The legend of the fountain was that it was at the meeting of the seas around an island so their desicion to search along the coast makes sence. The problem was that no one had ever known anything about a natural current called The Gulf Stream and on April 8th it threw the three boats backwards. Two of the ships were able to anchor but the littlest ship ended up lost in the stream for two days. Although to these sailers it was a frightening set-back, it turned out to be one of Ponce de Leon's great discoveries.
Still fueled by his determination and boyhood dreams, the ships reached the mainland of Florida on May 23rd. Once again, the gaps in the historical documents leave the actual landing spot up for debate but Charolette Harbor takes most of the credit. Excited once again at the possiblitiy of finding the fountain seen in his dreams, Ponce and his men go ashore and begin to travel inland to explore the streams and ponds in their search. Obviously, as was the typical occurance of the time, indians inhabited some of the areas. By this time, the white men had been spotted here and there and the word had travelled quickly among the tribes. The indians Ponce encountered weren't trying to fight the men, but rather were interested in trading knowing how many new and fun gadgets and toys these white men carried. Unfortunatly, there were some issues and small fights and Ponce's crew ended up taking eight indians captive. Although this was obviously bad for the natives, it was good for the crew because they had native people to help guide them to the magical waters. I can only imagine how these conversations went, the communication issues and how these spaniards tried to explain what they were looking for but the indian captives had a little fun with the spaniards basicly telling them "Yeah! We know what you're talking about! That magic life restoring water, well, it's right over that way!" and on June 14th, the spaniards set out to sea once again following these directions.
On June 21st the ships reached an island filled with animal life and vegitation. The island was espesally full of sea turtles and is addiquatly named The Dry Torugas. They stayed for a while, exploring the islands still in hopes of finding the waters but the crew's morale was wearing thin and Ponce made the desicion to go back home after a quick circle around Cuba. The currents around Cuba posed another set back for the men and docked them on Cuba's northeast shore shrouded in confusion. Once their expert pilot figured out where they were and where they needed to be, the ships redirected themselves eastward around the Florida keys and pennisula until they reached the Bahamas on July 8th. There, they encountered an interesting surprise.
Another Spanish ship was sailing around the area under the cover of being a slave ship, except it wasn't carrying any slaves. Ponce de Leon was either paranoid or right on the money with his speculations that this ship was sent by Diego Colon to spy on Ponce and his crew. If this story was made into a comic book or a movie based on mythology, Colon would be Ponce's arch nemises. Colon was the firstborn son of Christopher Columbus and since Columbus had lost favor with Spain because of his harsh treatment of the natives in the lands he discovered, his descendants had fueded with the Spanish Crown to have their rightful power restored and eventually won, forcing Ferdinand to place Colon, whom he hated even though he was his cousin by marriage, into the positions of second viceroy of the Indies, 2nd admiral of the Indies, and 3rd govener of the Indies (the title that had to be stripped from Ovando in 1509) alongside Ponce and his govenerships in Hispaniola. Regardless of his speculations on the matter, Ponce simply waved to the other ship and kept on his way. The other ship however ended up crashing in a storm not long after their meeting, and Ponce made the desicion to rescue the surviving crew and head for home.
Ponce sent the Santa Maria to do a little extra exploring on its own while the remaining men, including Ponce himself went home to rest. The Santa Maria returned safely as well four months later in 1514.
Under Colon's rule, the islands were a mess. The Caribs had attacked Caparra and destroyed it. His home there was also destroyed and his family barely escaped, heading quickly back for Spain. Colon was as tyranical and mean to the natives as his father had been and began a war of sorts against them. His monsterous ways didn't stop with the natives but the hotilities between Ponce and Colon only get worse so Ponce set out back for Spain to personally report his journey and founding of Florida before Colon tried to take the credit.
Arriving in Vallidolid in 1514, Ferdinand welcomed his dear friend with open arms. He was officially knighted and became the first conquistador to receive a personal coat of arms. He was given the rights to form settlements and govern all of Florida and Bimini. This time, Ferdinand covered the cost of three small ships and crew to return to the new found area but the trip was halted suddenly by Ferdinand's own death in 1516. Cardinal Fransisco Jimenez de Cisneros gave Ponce de Leon his support but Ponce did not set sail for his second voyage to Florida for another two years. That is, until he heard of at least two unauthorized voyages to Florida that were allegidly funded under Colon. Ponce quickly gathered himself and his men and ran to restate his claim on the land and continue his quest to find his youth.
In 1521, Juan Ponce de Leon was an old man at nearly 61 years old. With his ships he set out with the inhabitants of his future colonies instead of just sailers and explorers. He brought animals and farming equipment and in my opinion, he was making his plans to live out the rest of his days searching around his precious Florida and Bimini for the one thing he had left to find. Unfortunatly, it wasn't long after they came ashore that they were attacked by the Everglade natives called the Calusa who were an extensive tribe sweeping the shores not only of the Florida mainland, but also the Florida keys. They were known to protect their land fiercly and had a score to settle with the spanish from their first visit to Florida when the Calusa had came to them peacefully, wanting to trade and ended up losing a few of their brethern to them as captives. A great battle raged between the Spaniards and the natives, a war in which even Becerillo in his old age fought alongside his pup, Leoncillo, and his master. Ponce's choices from his first expidition were begining to come back to haunt him. In fact, his choices from his first expedition is what lead to the poison arrow in his butt which eventually lead to his death as well as his precious war-dog's death... well, acording to history that is.
But let me rewind for a moment. So we have the Calusa, basicly an evolved tribe who has alot of influence and power in the florida tribes. Their king, or cheif, is known as King Carlos. And according to the history, King Carlos' father is a man by the name of Sequene. Remember a few paragraphs ago when I got into the legend revolving aroudn the foutnain of youth and how the Arawak tribe told of their cheif who had sought out in search of it, never to return? And according to Calusa legend, around that same time 'refugees' from Cuba had been taken in and cared for by the Calusa, including Sequene who subsiquently, somehow, acheived the highest position of power in the tribe as cheif (legend states he gained the position from his brother but there is no history given of the brother's name or who held the position before him). Now, let's indulge our imaginations for a moment.
So Sequene and his men, maybe even including his own brother, set out from there tribe to find the Fountain of Youth and somehow end up around the Florida keys. They encounter the natives there, the Calusa, and because of their own native background are able to make friends with the people. The Calusa take care of the men who continue to explore the area for that mysterious fountain of youth and somehow, Sequene's brother happens to find it. They show the Calusa the great discovery that their own tribe had been sitting on for centuries! Immediatly, the Calusa begin to gain vast power over the lands of Florida and name Sequene's brother to their highest position of power - cheif. The Calusa know how valuable their finding is and become feirce protectors of their land. Generations pass down and here comes Ponce de Leon and the Spaniards looking for the very thing the Calusa are hiding and protecting. Now the Calusa had heard of the white's from the stories trickling down from tribe to tribe and had even heard of the Spaniards from Sequene and his men themselves, so they go out to meet these explorers. Initially, they don't realize what it is they're looking for, thinking these men are simply here to 'discover' and trade new goods. Great way to get new things for your tribe! So the Calusa go out to trade with them but as the Calusa are there, they watch these spaniards who are obviously looking for something. Finally, one of the Calusa who spoke spanish put the signs together with the thigns the men were saying - they were there to find the Calusa's prescious fountain! In ten days, the spanish speaking boy tells Ponce in his men to wait there for the Calusa cheif, but war canoes show up instead. The war canoes are no match for the Spanish ships, and the Spanish win, taking a few of the natives captive, bombarding them with question as to where these magical waters are. Either these captives have no idea what these men are trying to say, or they know a little too well, and send the men in the opposite direction, further away from their goal. When Ponce and his second voyage arrive, the Calusa are ready and declare war. They fight hard to protect their secret, and are sucsessful, dealing the leader of the crew his fatal blow.
If this imaginative interpretation of the legend was true, the Calusa must have kept the secret of the waters very safe. Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda was a young boy when he was rescued by the Calusa after a shipwreck and taken in to live within their tribe for 17 years. As an adult he wrote his memoirs which not only give very exact and precise descriptions of the Calusa and their way of life, but also holds a section about Ponce de Leon's first expedition in Florida and what the natives had seen. It was also one of the first accounts written connecting Ponce with the search for The Fountain of Youth, although Fontaneda himself seemed to doubt its exsistance.
"The Jordan that is talked of, is a superstition of the Indians of Cuba, which they hold to because it is their creed, not because there is such a river. Juan Ponz de Leon, giving heed to the tale of the Indians of Cuba and Santo Domingo, went to Florida in search of the River Jordan, that he might have some enterprise on foot, or that he might earn greater fame than he already possessed and close his life, which is the most probable supposition; or, if not for these objects, then that he might become young from bathing in such a stream. This thought was of itself proof that all must have been fiction that was told by the Indians of Cuba and its whole neighborhood, who, to satisfy their tradition, said that the Jordan was in Florida; to which at least I can say, that while I was a captive there, I bathed in many streams, but to my misfortune I never came upon the river. Anciently, many Indians from Cuba entered the ports of the Province of Carlos in search of it; and the father of King Carlos, whose name was Sequene, stopped those persons, and made a settlement of them, the descendants of whom remain to this day. And the same objects that they who left their country came in quest of in the River Jordan, the kings and caciques of Florida, although savages, took information of and sought after, as though they had been a more polite people, that they might see what river that could be which did such good work, even to the turning of aged men and women back to their youth. So earnestly did they engage in the pursuit, that there remained not a river nor a brook in all Florida, not even lakes and ponds, in which they did not bathe; and to this day they persist in seeking that water, and never are satisfied. In the attainment of the promises of their faith, those of Cuba determined, for such was their vow, to venture their lives on that sea; and it ended in all that numerous people who went over to Carlos forming a settlement: but to this day youth and age find alike that they are mocked, and many have destroyed themselves. It is cause for merriment, that Juan Ponz de Leon went to Florida to find the River Jordan. "
You'll notice in Fontaneda's account the mention of Sequene and how he stopped those who came from Cuba in search of the fountain and made homes for them. By the end of his personal account of what he had seen concerning the fountain, he basicly laughs at anyone who seek it. He also refers to the foutain as 'the River Jordan' which is an actual river that was already known and in exsistance in Southwest Asia. The Jordan river, sea of Galilea, and the Dead Sea are biblical landmarks where many miracles including the baptism of Jesus himself had happened. The waters are said to have mystical curative powers (although now days the 'magic' is reduced to scientific reasoning of the restorative properties of high concentrated levels of sea salt in the waters).
Although the tales of the Fountain of Youth aren't as prevalent as they were in the age of exploration, the quest to find these restorative waters is still on. Maybe the legendary waters are really in Bimini, now referred to as The Healing Hole. This pool of water was found under ground at the end of a series of ancient tunnels (the 'Land of Darkness'? Underground tunnels are very dark...) within a mangrove swamp. When the tide recedes, the pool fills with cool fresh water rich in sulfur, lithium, and other minerals which causes it's visitors to feel rejuvenated and 'younger'.
Magician David Copperfield has made the most recent claim to finding the Fountain of Youth in his newly bought $50 million chain of islands in the Bahamas. He claims he made a list of what he considers to be the most magical places in the world and drew lines connecting them. He said that where the lines intersected was right on this chain of islands which was magicly up for sale. He goes on to talk about a body of water on one of the islands that, when you drop in a dead brown leaf, it turns green again and when bugs close to death touch a drop of its waters, they are instantly revived and fly off unscathed. He also concludes this statement with the advertisment that he has a resort on the same island as this alleged fountain that holds space for you and 24 guests! (insert sarcasm here)
Either way, the legend still exsists and I hope will remain the speck in thrill-seekers' eyes for centuries to come. When we hear of the Fountain our minds still instantly go to poor ol' Ponce, the one explorer who set out to find something in the age of exploration not for wealth or power, but simply because he beleived in fairy tales. He wasn't trying to conquer or take over, just be young again, feel that fire of life within his lungs. But maybe, just maybe he did actually find that 'fountain of youth'. Maybe, that fountain isn't something that you can physicly touch hidden on some distant remote island somewhere. Maybe, the fountain is held within us. Maybe that fountain of youth rests on the island of fairy tales, hidden through the land of darkness of adulthood and doubt, nestled between the vast oceans of what-we-know-to-be-real and the-impossible-things-we-want-so-bad-to-beleive. Maybe, that's exactly where Juan Ponce de Leon found it, right when he least expected it.



Bibliography - Ponce de Leon

"Military Order of Calatrava". Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03149d.htm.

Joseph F. O'Callaghan: The Affiliation of the Order of Calatrava with the Order of Cîteaux, in: Analecta Cisterciensia 16 (1960), S. 3-59.

Juan Ponce de León: the exploration of Florida and the search for the Fountain of Youth. By Robert Greenberger. The Rosen Publishing Group, New York. 2003

Arnade, Charles W. (1967). "Who Was Juan Ponce de León?" Tequesta, The Journal of the Historical Asssociation of Southern Florida.

Fuson, Robert H. (2000). Juan Ponce de León and the Discovery of Puerto Rico and Florida. McDonald & Woodward Publishing Co.

Davis, T. Frederick. (1935) "History of Juan Ponce de Leon's Voyages to Florida: Source Records." Florida Historical Society Quarterly. V14:1.

Morison, Samuel Eliot (1974). The European Discovery of America, The Southern Voyages. Oxford University Press

Van Middeldyk, R. A. (1903). The History of Puerto Rico. D. Appleton and Co.

"Juan Ponce de León" in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.

Peck, Douglas T. "Misconceptions and Myths Related to the Fountain of Youth and Juan Ponce de Leon's 1513 Exploration Voyage" (PDF). New World Explorers, Inc. http://www.newworldexplorersinc.org/FountainofYouth.pdf.

Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo. Historia General y Natural de las Indias, book 16, chapter XI.

Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages 1492-1616 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), p. 504.

Charlie Carlson (April 7, 2005). Weird Florida. New York: Sterling. ISBN 0-7607-5945-6

Jane Sutton (August 15, 2006). "David Copperfield 'finds Fountain of Youth'".

http://khidr.org/khwaja-khadir.htm

http://www.vegasdeluxe.com/blogs/luxe-life/2009/aug/20/david-copperfield-begins-...

Stephen Birmingham, The Grandees: America's Sephardic Elite, (Harper & Row: 1971),

Richard Fletcher. Moorish Spain p10. University of California Press. 1993. ISBN 978-0520084964

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Moors

Christopher Columbus and how He Received and Imparted the Spirit of Discovery. Justin Winsor. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1891