Myth of the source. Historical references
The Fountain of Youth: from Myth to History
"At a distance of 325 leagues from La Española, they say there is an island called Boyuca or Ananeo, and those who have explored the island´s interior tell of a remarkable spring that rejuvenates the old through the drinking of its waters. Do not think, Your Holiness, that they say this in jest or take it lightly. So formally have they dared to circulate this information throughout the court that the entire town, and more than a few of its most-distinguished members, through virtue and fortune, take it as true." Peter Martyr, an Italian Humanist in the court of King Ferdinand the Catholic, leaves us the first reference to the Fountain of Youth in the Americas, even though he does not mention La Florida or Juan Ponce de León. (Decade II, Ch. X)
Spanish expedition to the Fountain of Youth.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, Tallahassee, FL.
Juan Ponce de León: Seeking the Fountain of Youth?
Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo
The first reference that links Juan Ponce de León to the search for the Fountain of Youth lies in the Chronicles of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, written almost two decades after the death of Juan Ponce de León.
"And then he told that tale about the Fountain that rejuvenates the old or makes them young... And this story was so widely-known, its truth so asserted by the Indians from those parts, that Captain Juan Ponce and his people, and lost caravels went... to seek this fountain. This was a great joke among the Indians…". Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas y tierra firme del mar océano, que relata los acontecimientos que van de 1492 a 1549 (General and Natural History of the Indies: Islands and Mainland of the Ocean, which tells of events between 1492 and 1549). Part one was printed in 1535. Book XVI, Ch. XI.
