History of the US / USA / in a nutshell - Historia de los EEUU condensada
The Era of Discovery Juan Ponce de León was the first European to sight what today is Florida. A legend says he discovered it while searching for the Fountain of Youth, but this is a later-day myth. On March 3, 1513, Juan Ponce de León organized and equipped three ships which commenced an expedition departing from "Punta Aguada" Puerto Rico. Although it is often stated that he sighted the peninsula for the first time on March 27, 1513, and thought it was an island, he probably saw one of the Bahama islands. It was Spanish custom to name a new place after the nearest Roman Catholic feast day. They had just started exploring "new places" for a few decades at most. He arrived on the east coast during the Spanish Easter feast, Pascua Florida, April 7. He named the land La Pascua de la Florida, or " Passion of the Flowers ," or " Passion of the Christ ". At the time of first European contact in the early 16th century, Florida was inhabited by ...