The explorations and discoveries of Juan Ponce are thus described by Herrera: “On Sunday, the twenty-seventh of March, the day of the Feast of the Resurrection, commonly called the Feast of Flowers, (_que era Dia de Pascua de Resurreccion, que comunmente dicen de Flores_,) they saw an island and passed by it. On Monday, the twenty-eighth, they steered in the same direction, fifteen leagues, until Wednesday, when the weather became foul. They then stood west-northwest until the second of April. The water grew shallower until they came into nine fathoms, a league from the land, which was in thirty degrees and eight minutes. Thinking this land was an island they called it La Florida, because it had a very pretty landscape of many green groves, and it was level and regular, and because they discovered it at the time of the Floral Feast (_Pascua Florida_).[303] Juan Ponce wished the name to conform to these two facts. He went on land to learn the language and to take possession. “On Friday, the eighth, they sailed again the same way, and on Saturday, south by east, until the twentieth, when they saw some Indian huts from the place where they had cast anchor. The next day the three ships sailed along the coast and entered a current which was so swift that it drove them back, although they had the wind strong.[304] The two ships, near the land, dropped their anchors, but the force of the stream was so great that it strained the cables. The third vessel, a brigantine, being farther out, either found no bottom or was not sensible of the current, which carried her so far from the shore that they lost sight of her, although the day was bright and the weather fine. “Juan Ponce being called by the Indians went ashore and the latter at once undertook to possess themselves of the boat, the oars, and the arms. This was tolerated till one of the Indians stunning a sailor with a stroke of a cudgel on the head, when the Spaniards were compelled to fight. They had two of their men wounded with darts and arrows pointed with sharp bones, and the Indians received little injury. Night parting them, Juan Ponce, with considerable difficulty, got his men together and sailed thence to a river, where they wooded and watered, and waited for the brigantine. Sixty Indians came to attack them, one of whom was taken to give information and to learn the Spanish language. The river they called Rio de la Cruz, (River of the Cross), planting there a stone cross, bearing an inscription.”[305] On the twenty-third of September, after having coasted in different directions along the Flowery Land, Juan Ponce determined to return to Porto Rico. Before he set sail, he sent Juan Perez de Ortubia to make a further search for the rejuvenating fountains on the island of Bimini. Not long after Juan Ponce’s return to Porto Rico, Ortubia arrived there and reported that he had found the island, but not the wonderful spring.[306]