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Juan Ponce de Leon and the Spanish Discovery of Puerto Rico and Florida. By Robert H. Fuson. (Blacksburg, Va.: McDonald and Woodward Publishing Company, 2000. Pp. xvi, 268. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-93992382-3; cloth, $29.95, ISBN 0-939923-84-X.)
Much remains unknown about the life of Juan Ponce de Leon, the Spanish explorer who named Florida in 1513. Now Robert Fuson has written the most complete biography of Juan Ponce yet.
Fuson's stated purpose is "to document, as much as possible, the life of Juan Ponce de Leon" (p. xi). To that end, the author introduces his young subject, who by 1493 had already served five years in the Granada wars. Although Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes and Bartolome de las Casas have asserted that Juan Ponce sailed on Columbus's second voyage, Fuson admits that there is no hard proof of that.
At any...