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He was only fifteen when he presented himself to Don Pedro Nunez de Gusman, yet young Juan Ponce de Leon had much to recommend him as a candidate for a position of service in the household of a nobleman. Of noble blood himself, although penniless, and possessing quick wits and courage, Juan was burning with ambition and longed to rise in the world.
It was not surprising that he progressed quickly from page to squire to captain in the army that fought against the Moors for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Nor that he was chosen to command the troops that Christopher Columbus was taking along on his second voyage to New Spain. The wonder is that such an able soldier and strong leader should also be the gentle man who won the grief-stricken Dona Inez as wife and who later recoiled with horror at the treatment meted out to the natives on the islands now known as Haiti and Puerto Rico. Always a friend to the Indians, even when forced by duty to fight against them, Juan Ponce de Leon eventually became a plantation owner and the first adelantado—or sub-governor—of Puerto Rico, where his name is revered to the present day.
This warm and human biography turns the beacon light of truth and research on the "Fountain of Youth" legend, and shows that while some in Juan Ponce de Leon's last expedition were indeed seeking the magic waters on the island the Indians called Bimini, the great leader himself was in quest of new territory for Spain and new land for himself to govern.
Handsomely illustrated with black-and-white line drawings by Robert Doremus.
—from the dust jacket
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