Ponce de León—who, like other Spanish conquistadors…
1516 CE
Ponce de León—who, like other Spanish conquistadors in the Americas, is looking for gold, land to colonize and rule for Spain, and natives to convert to Christianity or enslave—probably was not the first Spaniard to reach Florida, although he was the first to do so with permission from the Spanish crown.
Spanish slave expeditions had been regularly raiding the Bahamas since 1494 and there is some evidence that one or more of these slavers 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.
The natives encountered by Ponce de León were hostile at first contact, and he met an native in Florida who knew some Spanish words.
Other Spanish voyages to Florida had quickly followed Ponce de León's return.
Sometime in the period from 1514 to 1516, Pedro de Salazar enslaves as many as five hundred natives along the Atlantic coast of the present-day southeastern United States.