their situation, till De
Leon sent to examine an island which he believed to be Bahama, in which he
was confirmed by an old woman who was found alone in another island. They
were likewise confirmed in this circumstance by James Miruelo, a pilot,
who happened to be there with a boat from Hispaniola. Having ranged
backwards and forewards to the 23d of September, and refitted their ships,
Juan Ponce de Leon sent one of his ships, commanded by Juan Perez de
Ortubia, with Antonio de Alaminos as pilot, with orders to examine the
island of Bimini, in which the Indians reported there was a spring which
made old people young again. Twenty days afterwards, Juan Ponce returned
to Porto Rico, and not long afterwards the ship returned there which he
had sent to Bimini, but without discovering the famous spring. Ortubia
reported that the island was large, and pleasantly diversified with hills,
plains, and meadows, having many rivers and delightful groves[2].

Besides his main design of making discoveries, which all Spaniards then
aspired to, Ponce was eager to find out the spring of Bimini, and a
certain river in Florida, both of which were affirmed by the Indians of
Cuba to have the property of turning old people young by bathing in their
waters. Some time before the arrival of the Spaniards, many Indians were
so thoroughly convinced of the reality of such a river, that they went
over to Florida, where they built a town, and their descendants still
continue there. This report prevailed so universally among the caciques in
these parts, that there was not a brook in all Florida, nay scarcely a
lake or puddle, that they had not bathed in; and some still ignorantly
persist in believing that this virtue resides in the river now called
_Jordan_, at Cape _Santa Helena_, forgetting that the Spaniards first gave
it this name in 1520, when they discovered the country of _Chicora_.

Though this voyage of Ponce de Leon turned out to no account to him, it
gave him encouragement to go to court to seek a reward for the countries
he had discovered, which he believed to be all islands, and not the
continent, as it afterwards turned out. Yet his voyage was beneficial, on
account of the route soon afterwards found out, by which the ships returned
to Spain through the Bahama channel, which was first accomplished by the
pilot Antonio de Alaminos, formerly mentioned. For the better
understanding this voyage of Juan Ponce, it must be understood that there