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
Aguáda March 3, 1512.

Strange as it may seem, that men like Ponce, Zuñiga, 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 Parimé.

The expedition touched at Guanakáni 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