Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-06-30
Ponce Dc Leon.

No place has more romantic history
than st. Augustine. 1t is a fact that
little is really known of the early days
of the place. This uncertainty has de-
velopcd the natural tendancy to involve
such obscurity in romance, and the re-
suit is several pretty stories. which are
interesting, and may be true. 1t is be-
lieved that Juan Ponce de Leon, the
gallant old Spanish navigator and com
panion of Columbus, in the later days OF
his eventful life, discovered the site Of
the city, which was an Indian village.
A beautiful Carib maiden, Aleida, whom
the gallant Spaniard had seized in some
of the Virgin islands otfthe coast, told
De Leon of the spring of eternal youth,
and her beauty. as well as his advancing
years, caused him to make a valiant
effort to find it. For this purpose, as
well as that of discovery, De Leon made
permanent settlement at St. Augustine
in 1912 and laid the foundations of the
old fort which stands just north of the
town. covered with the mold and dust
of three centuries and differed and gar
risoned by a veteran ordnance sergeant.
DE Icons mission, peaceful and
romantic as it was, led him to make
treaties with the Indians, the friendly
Selooes and the warlike Yotematoes.
Following the customs of European
courts, though in an humble way, he
established bull fights at Torroville
Villa del Torro) in the city limits, and
taught the savages the pleasure Of life
as he understood them. Tomoka, the
chief of the Cards, the most savage of
tribes, became enamored of Aleida at one
of the games instituted by De Leon, and
demanded that he and the Spanish
cavalier should fight for her fair hand.
This De Leon, who was aged and in
firm, refused to do, but proposed a
grand combat between his soldiers and
the tribe of Tomaka. Meanwhile, De
Leon had discovered a spring, which is
still shown just above the Sebastian
River, which was regarded with venera-
bic superstition by the Indians. The
he believed that it was a fountain of
youth. According to tradition an angel
came everyeveningt to drink of the ''water
%oflife," as the Indians called it, and the
few drops falling from his wings gave
to the spring its continual curative and
restoring powers. A c%uriously wrought
cup of clay from which the angel drank
is still in the possession Tnstenuggee
(Tom Tiger Tally, whose son Jim was
so drunk in the Kissimmee City saloon
the other day, and is regarded as the
most sacred of relics by the Seminoles.
Tomoka did not believe in the supersti-
ton, and he greatly offended the Setooes
and Yotematoes by drinking out of and
at last seizing the cup, which was
thoughtto be the vilest sacrilege. Ponce
de Leon, angered at Tomoka's love for
Alcida and full of the superstition of the
time, determined upon the destruction
of that chief, and. sailed out of the fort
with his soldiers to attack him.
The two warriors met. De Icons
page threw himself before Tomoka's
spear and saved De Icons life for the
moment, but it was still at the mercy of
the savage. Suddenly Aleida, attired
in the dress of a Carib which she had
slain, darted forward and, drawing her
bow, pierced Tomoka to the heart, and
reaching forward to snatch the sacred
cup from the dead chiefs neck, was
struck by a poisoned arrow and fell
dead. The battle was decided by De
Leon's friends, the Selooes and Yotem-
atoes, appearing and killing every one
OF the Caribs. Temoka's body was
buried on Anastasia island, near the
Coquia qaarries, where the giant re-
mains were discovered some years ago.
Aleida and the page were buried near
the spring, and Ponce De Leon, sorely
wounded, was borne into the fort. An
old slab of marble dug up zeal the
spring, which now bears De Icons
name, has this inscription in Spanish:
This narrow place is the sepulchre of
a hero, who was in the name a lion and
much more SO in reality, Ponce De
Leon."-St' augustine (FVa.) Cor.
RilaQelDhi1 Press.