La Florida.

After the conquest of the Aztecs and the Incas, opportunities for fame and fortune in Central and South America were limited. To the north, however, lay what many people thought was an island where they expected to find quantities of gold and silver comparable to what Hernando Cortes and Francisco Pizarro had found. In 1513 Juan Ponce de Leon sighted a peninsula he named La Florida, and in 1521 he returned to try to build a settlement. The Calusas, however, resisted the invasion and drove Ponce de Leon and his men back to their ships. Leon died of his wounds in Cuba, but his death did not diminish interest in the unexplored land. Seven years later the one-eyed, red-haired adventurer Panfilo de Narvaez attempted to settle the Gulf Coast of Florida. His expedition set out for the interior to...