s or caciques in these parts, who were all so anxious to find
out this wonderful river, that there was not a river, brook, or lake in
all Florida in which some of them had not bathed, and many still persist
in the belief that it is the river now called Jordan at Cape _Santa
Elena_, without reflecting that the Spaniards first gave it that name in
1520, when the country of Chicora was discovered.

Although this voyage turned out to little or no account to Juan Ponce,
it yet encouraged him to go to court to sue for some reward for having
discovered this new country, which he still continued to believe an
island or cluster of islands, and which opinion was retained by the
Spaniards for some years. Yet this voyage was actually beneficial on
another account, by the discovery of a passage to Spain from the West
Indies through the channel of Bahama, which was first performed by the
pilot Alaminos. For the better understanding the voyage of Ponce, it
must be observed that the Lucayo or Bahama Islands consist of three
groups, the _first_, or Bahama cluster gives name to the passage, and in
which the currents are most impetuous: The _second_ is called _De los
Organos_; and the _third_ the _Martyrs_, which are next to the _Cayos de
las Tortugas_, or Turtle Keys to the westwards; which last are not to be
seen from any distance, being all low sands, and in consequence many
ships have perished on them, and all along the Bahama channel, and on
the islands of Tortugas. Havannah in the island of Cuba and Florida, are
south and north of each other; and between them are these
before-mentioned islands of Organos, Bahama, Martyrs, and Tortugas,
having a channel with a violent current, twenty leagues across in the
narrowest part between Havannah and the Martyrs, and fourteen leagues
from the Martyrs to Florida. The widest part of this channel is forty
leagues, with many shoals and deep channels between these, but has no
safe passage for ships, and is only practicable for canoes. But this
passage from the Havannah for Spain, is along the channel of Bahama,
between the Havannah, the Martyrs, the Lucayos, and Cape Canaveral.

* * * * *

No farther attempt appears to have been made towards the conquest and
settlement of Florida by the Spaniards, till the year 1528, when Panfilo
de Narvaez made a most disastrous expedition to that country, which will
form the subject of the ensuing section of this chapter; except th