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current. Ponce de León’s expedition became
the first Europeans to encounter the Gulf
Stream, one of the strongest ocean currents in
the world. Later Spanish navigators learned to
use the northeastern flow of Gulf Stream waters
and winds to hasten their voyages to Europe.
Ponce continued south, stopping at Indian
villages and inquiring about a “fountain of
youth.” He passed the Florida Keys, naming
them Los Mártires (The Martyrs) because
from a distance their rocky shores resembled
the silhouettes of suffering men. The ships
turned north into the Gulf of Mexico and
soon anchoredin Charlotte Bay, a third of the
way up the Florida peninsula’s west coast.
Friendly relations with the Calusa Indians
quickly deteriorated into open warfare, and
on June 14 Ponce abandoned his search for
the “fountain of youth” and ordered a return
to Puerto Rico.
Instead of heading directly southeast
toward home, however, he sailed southwest,
perhaps intending to return south of Cuba.
Less than two weeks after leaving Florida, the
crews sighted a land they assumed was Cuba
but which some scholars believe was the
northerncoast of the Yucatán Peninsula of
Mexico. The expedition briefly went ashore,
but soon resumed its return eastward,
unaware that they were perhaps the first Euro-
peans to encounter Mexico.
LAND OF AMICHEL
After his return to Puerto Rico, Ponce de León
obtained a royal grant to settle the lands he
had discovered, but became involved in fight-
ing the Carib, who had revolted against Span-
ish rule in his absence. He would not return
north until 1521, eight years later. By then, the
conquest and newfound wealth of Mexico
wereencouraging Spaniards to explore the
coast of the Gulf of Mexico, to determine if
Florida was an island or part of a greater land-
mass connected to Mexico.
This was a logical quest. While searching
the coastline of northeastern Mexico for a
route to the Pacific Ocean in 1519, Alonso
Alvarez de Pineda blundered into the mighty
current caused by the Mississippi River’s dis-
charge into the Gulf of Mexico. Although he
did not find his way into the river through its
lower passes, credit for the first European
discovery of the Mississippi arguably
belongs to Alvarez de Pineda, rather than
Hernando de Soto, who reached the river
overland 22 years later. Alvarez de Pineda’s
patron, Francisco de Garay, obtained royal
permission to explore the area between
Florida and Mexico, which he called the landJuan Ponce de León explored portions of present-day
Florida, which he first found in 1513.(Library of
Congress)(^48) B Discovery of the Americas, 1492–1800
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