bide his time, but the spirit of unrest in him chafed under this forced inaction.  The idea of discovering the island, said to exist somewhere in the northwestern part of these Indies, where wonderful waters flowed that restored old age to youth and kept youth always young, occupied his mind more and more persistently, until, having obtained the king’s sanction, he fitted out an expedition of three ships and sailed from the port of Aguada March 3, 1512.

Strange as it may seem, that men like Ponce, Zuniga, and the other leading expeditionists should be glad of an opportunity to risk their lives and fortunes in the pursuit of a chimera, it must be remembered that the island of Bemini itself was not a chimera.

The followers of Columbus, the majority of them ignorant and credulous, had seen a mysterious new world rise, as it were, from the depths of the ocean.  As the islands, one after the other, appeared before their astonished eyes, they discovered real marvels each day.  The air, the land, the sea, were full of them.  The natives pointed in different directions and spoke of other islands, and the adventurers’ imaginations peopled them with fancied wonders.  There was, according to an old legend, a fountain of perennial youth somewhere in the world, and where was it more likely to be found than in this hitherto unknown part of it?

Ponce and his companions believed in its existence as firmly as, some years later, Ferdinand Pizarro believed in the existence of El Dorado and the golden lake of Parime.

The expedition touched at Guanakani on the 14th of March, and on the 27th discovered what Ponce believed to be the island of which he was in search.  On April 2d Ponce landed and took possession in the king’s name.  The native name of the island was Cansio or Cautix, but the captain named it “la Florida,” some say because he found it covered with the flowers of spring; others, because he had discovered it on Resurrection day, called “Pascua Florida” by the Spanish Catholics.

The land was inhabited by a branch of the warlike Seminole Indians, who disputed the Spaniards’ advance into the interior.  No traces of gold were found, nor did the invaders feel themselves rejuvenated, when, after a wearisome march or fierce fight with the natives, they bathed in, or drank of, the waters of some stream or spring.  They had come to a decidedly inhospitable shore, and Ponce, after exploring the eastern and southern littoral, and discovering the Cayos group of small islands, turned back to San Juan, where he arrived in the beginning of October, “looking much older,” says the chronicler, “than when he went in search of rejuvenation.”

Two years later he sailed for the Peninsula and anchored in Bayona in April, 1514.  King Ferdinand received him graciously and conferred on him the titles of Adelantado of Bemini and la Florida, with civil and criminal jurisdiction on land and sea.  He also made him commander of the fleet for the destruction of the Caribs, and perpetual “regidor” (prefect) of San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico.  This last surname for the island began to be used in official documents about this time (October, 1514).