By the time he became the first European credited with setting foot in “La Florida” in 1513, Juan Ponce de León had been a successful conquistador roaming the New World for 20 years. He was a companion to Christopher Columbus on the second voyage in 1493, the first governor of Puerto Rico, and an avid explorer of the Caribbean. But for all that is known and written about his numerous exploits, historians still argue over where exactly he first landed in Florida. De León’s expeditionary narrative seems all too familiar….
