During these transactions on the southern continent, the spirit of discovery was actively at work in other quarters. Diego Columbus, the son of the celebrated admiral, had arrived, in 1509, at Hispaniola, invested with all those powers and prerogatives which had been so unjustly withheld from his father. He was followed to the New World by a large train of noble and wealthy persons, whose presence gave new animation and vigour to the colonies. Settlements were made in Cuba and other islands, and expeditions to examine the neighbouring seas proceeded advantageously from different points at once. In 1512, Juan Ponce de Leon, governor of Porto Rico, fitted out three ships to go in search of Bayuca, an island, in which was a fountain, as the Indians related, possessing the virtue of restoring all who bathed in it to youth. Tales such as this were readily believed by romantic adventurers. Those who had braved the perils of the ocean to seek their fortunes in a new world fancied that they trod on enchanted ground; and where nature appeared in so new a garb, the invariable laws by which she directs her operations were easily lost sight of. Ponce de Leon failed to discover the miraculous fountain; but, after sailing a considerable distance to the north-west, he fell in with land, to which, from the circumstance of its being discovered on Easter-day, he gave the name of Florida.