Juan Ponce de Leon

      Juan Ponce de Leon was born in San Servas in 1460. Very little is known about Juan. When Juan explored in the eastern province the Indians said he would find gold on the island next to theirs, but not anywhere on their island. It was called Puerto Rico. A couple years later he conquered Puerto Rico. He was a governor in Puerto Rico until the king removed him from office in 1512. When he was out exploring he accidentally found the great spring called "The Fountain Of Youth". Its waters would restore youth to the aged people. According to the legend of Eden the spring was located somewhere in Asia. That was one of the things people knew him for. Juan died in 1521.

     Juan Ponce de Leon has a lot of great expeditions. On March 3, 1513 Juan sailed from Puerto Rico and he landed somewhere very near Florida. Then he returned to Spain and was requested to colonize Florida. King Ferdinand chose him to lead an expedition. Juan went on a voyage with Christopher Columbus looking for Hispaniola. He was the first European to visit Florida. On April 8 he sailed south. In 1504 he took part in a campaign against Native Americans.

     King Ferdinand sent Juan to explore Florida. The king thought Juan was a good explorer. Juan was sponsored by Spain, basically the King. He came back from Puerto Rico with a large nugget of gold. After finding gold there he returned to Puerto Rico. He returned with lots of settlers. He wasn't very kind to the Native Americans. Juan was quite ruthless in treating the Indians during the takeover of Puerto Rico.

     When Juan and his group reached Hispaniola everyone was excited. On the island the men found dead Spaniards tied up with ropes. As soon as they saw this they figured the Indians did it. On this island Juan's men robbed the Indians of the little food and gold they could find. in 1515 he fought  the Crib tribe. When Juan returned the king ordered him to rid the west Indies of the fierce cannibals that were there.

    Juan always enjoyed fighting the Natives. Earlier on he was very poor. He would kill many people he did not know, like people on the lands he explored, mostly the Indians. Juan wasn't that nice of a guy. He especially wasn't kind to people he just met. He would never be friends with the Indians because he thought they were bad. His servants were the people he found along the trip.

  By: Amber

  Bibliography

       ·    Encyclopedia of World Biography volume 8

·       The World Book volume 15 P

·       Explorers and Discoverers volume Po-Z

·       Explorers and Discoverers

·  http://lirbrary.thinkquest.org/J0026/8F/ponce_de_leon.htm?tqsk1p1=1&tqtime=0306

·       http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorerers/page/d/deleon.shtml

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