It was a myth that led to the discovery of Florida. In the folklore of Europe, there was a story of a magic spring that existed somewhere in the world. It was called the “Fountain of Youth.” According to the legend, anyone who would drink from that spring would be cured of any sickness and would regain his youth.
The legend first circulated through Europe in the twelfth century when a letter attributed to one Prester John (Priest John, probably John of Montecorvino) made mention of it. For centuries the legend lingered on, kept alive more by the desire of men than by any factual probability. Then somehow after the discovery of the New World, the myth of the Fountain of Youth began to be clothed in new rumors.
Indians are supposed to have told of this magic spring, and even given its location as a place called “Bimini,” north of the West Indies. That these rumors reached Spain is certain, because they are mentioned in a book published in 1511. That book even contained a map that showed Bimini as an island.
One man who heard the rumors and was intrigued by them was a Spanish conquistador, Juan Ponce de Leon, a veteran soldier. Ponce de Leon had first come to the New World in the second expedition of Columbus. For a time, he served as governor of what is now Haiti. In 1508 he led that conquered Puerto Rico and for a time was governor of that island, until he was removed by Diego Columbus, son of Christopher and successor to his father. Finding himself “rich and unemployed,” Ponce de Leon outfitted two caravels and went in search of the fabulous Bimini. After sailing around for six months, he finally made landfall (March 27, 1512) on what he believed was an island. Since he had first sighted the land on Easter Sunday, which the Spanish call Pascua Florida (Flowery Easter), he named his supposed island Florida.
Ponce de Leon was not equipped to colonize so he returned to his base and then proceeded to Spain where he sought and gained permission to colonize his new discovery. The king granted him permission; he equipped three ships in Seville and returned to Puerto Rico. Some fighting against the Carib Indians delayed his plans and it was not until 1521 that he sailed from Puerto Rico with his three ships to begin his colony. According to an historian of the times, “he took mares and calves and pigs and sheep and goats and all kinds of animals, domestic and useful in the service of men.”
Ponce de Leon sailed around the peninsula, almost to Tampa Bay. He made his landing somewhere in the vicinity of the present Fort Myers. But the first attempt to colonize Florida was not successful. The Indians were hostile and put up stiff resistance. In one battle, many of his soldiers were killed and Ponce de Leon was wounded in the thigh with an arrow. He ordered a retreat and died in Cuba of his wound. He had not found the mythical Fountain of Youth, and he died thinking Florida was an island; but he is the first Spaniard of record to set foot on what is now United States mainland.[1]
The brief account of the expedition by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdés, in his Historia general y natural de las Indias suggests that some days elapsed between their landing and the attack, during which time the priests accompanying the expedition tried to preach to the natives and come to terms with them, but to no avail. If the priests were indeed onshore for a few days, as Oviedo suggests, before being driven away, they may well have offered Mass there, at Charlotte Harbor, which would have been the first Mass offered on what would become the continental U.S. But if they did so, it was not noted in the spotty records that remain of the expedition.[2]
[1] Albert J. Nevins, M.M., Our American Catholic Heritage, (Huntington, ID. Our Sunday Visitor) 1972, pp. 31-32)
[2] (http://www.catholicworldreport.com/2014/05/13/americas-first-mass/)