Inspired by West Indian tales of gold and a fountain giving perpetual youth, Juan Ponce de Leon, Spanish Governor of Puerto Rico, reached Florida's eastern shore on April 2, 1513. He landed between (what are now called) the St. Augustine Inlet and the St. John's River. He claimed the land for Spain and named it "La Florida", land of the flowers. In 1564 when French Huguenots established Fort Caroline, five miles from the mouth of the St. John's River, King Philip of Spain sent Pedro Menendez de Aviles with an expedition against the colony. Menclendez conquered the French the next year and erected a fort at St. Augustine. Thus is credited with founding the first permanent European settlement in the United States and St. Augustine is called "The Nation's Oldest City."
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