11 Discovery of Florida 1513

11. Discovery of Florida, 1513

In the same year that Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean, Ponce de Leon sailed northward and westward from the Bahamas. On Easter Sunday, 1513, he anchored off the shores of a new land. The Spanish name for Easter was La Pascua de los Flores. So De Leon called the new land Florida. For the Spaniards were a very religious people and usually named their lands and settlements from saints or religious events. De Leon then sailed around the southern end of Florida and back to the West Indies. In 1521 he again visited Florida, was wounded by an Indian arrow, and returned home to die.