Abstract
The discoverers of a new world are accepted as among the boldest and shrewdest men, with very few exceptions; it is the misfortune of Florida that her history is made to begin in popular conception, with her discovery by an old man, who foolishly sought here a renewed youth, that he might gain the love of a young girl. But Ponce stood high among the soldiers and statesmen of Spain, because of the services already given. When he received permission to seek and govern a new land, he was only in the maturity of mental and physical vigor, and if he was weakminded in supposing it possible to find here a fountain from which youth might be regained, then Columbus was more foolish in accepting a wilder possibility on slighter evidence. If the discoverer of Florida be considered a weak dreamer, then the discoverer of America was a wilder visionary.
Recommended Citation
Harrison, Benjamin
(1924)
"Old Pictures of the New Florida: Ponce de Leon and His Land,"
Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 3:
No.
1, Article 8.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol3/iss1/8
