Juan+Ponce+de+Leon

=__**Juan Ponce de Leon**__=
 * He lived from 1460-1521**.**
 * He was born in either 1460 or in 1474, no one is sure**.**
 * He died in July 1521**.**
 * Born in Santervas, Spain**.**
 * He was Spanish**.**
 * As a child, his nickname was "Poor Knight"**.**
 * Being a knight is in his culture**.**
 * Descended from a Spanish royal family**.**
 * He was a courtier,explorer,and solider**.**
 * First European to set foot in Florida**.**
 * Discovered the Gulf Stream**.**
 * He was a privateer in the 1490's**.**
 * He sailed with Christopher Columbus on September 25th 1493**.**[[image:Ponce_de_Leon.jpg width="163" height="256"]]
 * He discovered the Bahamas in February 1512**.**
 * He discovered and named current day Florida**.**
 * He decided to name it "Florida" because it means "Place of Flowers"**.**
 * Florida had lavish landscape and beautiful beaches**.**
 * He landed in the Florida peninsula March, 1513**.**
 * He claimed all of Florida's for Spain**.**
 * His first voyage was to Florida**.**
 * 1521 he returned back to Florida to start a colony**.**
 * He was ambushed by the Calusa (an unfriendly tribe) and was hit in the leg with an arrow**.** media type="custom" key="11837072"
 * He died at the age of 61 in Havana, Cuba because of the arrow wound to his thigh**.**
 * He acquired the injury from a battle against the Indians in 1521**.**
 * He was the first governor of Puerto Rico ( He served from 1509-1512 then again from 1515-1519)**.**
 * As a boy, he was trained to be a page (A boy training to be a knight), in the house of Pedro Nunez de Guzman**.**
 * His wife's name was Leonor Ponce de Leon**.**
 * In 1493, he joins Christopher Columbus on his second to the New World (America)**.**
 * He had four children, 3 girls and 1 boy, under the names of Juana, Maria, Isabel, and Luis**.**
 * He helped fight as a solider against Muslims in 1490 (after he was trained as a page)**.**
 * He forced Indians to be slaves for his children in 1502**.**
 * His image was honored on stamps**.**
 * He is recognized as one of the most important Europeans to explore the New World**.**
 * Monuments that were dedicated to him are found in Florida or Puerto Rico**.**
 * When the Spaniards tried to make Indians their slaves, they fought back, one Indian killing several Spaniards**.**
 * The governor sent Juan to control the Indian slaves and stop the fighting**.**
 * Leon established a new town in Higuey and named it Salvaleon**.**
 * He discovered a new island named Borinquin where he found lots of gold**.**
 * By: Shannon Haedrich, Zoe Robinson and Seth Goldman**