Ponce de Leon’s fleet, departing the Bahamas,…

Ponce de Leon’s fleet, departing the Bahamas, crosses open water for the next several days until April 2, 1513, when they sight land that Ponce de León believes is another island.

He names it La Florida in recognition of the verdant landscape and because it is the Easter season, which the Spaniards call Pascua Florida (Festival of Flowers).

The following day they come ashore to seek information and take possession of this new land.

The precise location of their landing on the Florida coast has been disputed for many years.

Some historians believe it occurred at St. Augustine; others prefer a more southern landing at a small harbor now called Ponce de León Inlet; but many now agree that Ponce came ashore even farther south near the present location of Melbourne Beach.

The latitude coordinate recorded in the ship's log closest to the landing site, reported by Herrera, is 30 degrees, 8 minutes, most likely exaggerated to enforce land claims to justify the removal of French Protestants nearly fifty years later.

This sighting is recorded at noon the day before with either a quadrant or a mariner's astrolabe, and the expedition sails north for the remainder of the day before anchoring for the night and rowing ashore the following morning.

This latitude corresponds to a spot north of St. Augustine between what is now the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve and Ponte Vedra Beach.

After remaining in the area of their first landing for about five days, the ships turn south for further exploration of the coast.

On April 8 they encounter a current so strong that it pushes them backwards and forces them to seek anchorage.

The tiniest ship, the San Cristobal, is carried out of sight and lost for two days.

This is the first encounter with the Gulf Stream where it reaches maximum force between the Florida coast and the Bahamas.

Because of the powerful boost provided by the current, it will soon become the primary route for eastbound ships leaving the Spanish Indies bound for Europe.

Although Ponce de León is widely credited with the discovery of Florida, he almost certainly is not the first European to reach the peninsula.

Spanish slave expeditions have been regularly raiding the Bahamas since 1494 and there is some evidence that one or more of these slavers had made it as far as the shores of Florida.

Another piece of evidence that others came before Ponce de León is the Cantino Map from 1502, which shows a peninsula near Cuba that looks like Florida's and includes characteristic place names.