According to the shipwreck survivor Ernando Fontaneda, a story existed among the early Florida natives that revealed how a family tribe, living just north of Cuba near or at a place called "Beniny" or "Bimini", used the healing powers of a nearby fountain to live longer lives. Although an island called Bimini now exist in the western Bahamas, the upper Florida Keys and Florida Bay area may have once provided the necessary resources for such a unique place of life extending elements.
WESTWARD SEARCH
Leaving his governorship of Puerto Rico, Ponce was seeking the legendary whereabouts a rich tropical island area named "Beniny" or "Bimini". He gathered an expedition of men and three ships and sailed westward where he discovered instead a large North American peninsula of what is now known as Florida.
According to Herrera, Ponce associated the naming of this important geographical discovery in honor of Easter Sunday of the discovery, which is a day in Spring when the "feast of the flowers" is celebrated - thus "La Florida" was discovered.
He also was the first European explorer to have named the islands off the southern coast of Florida the "Cayos de los Martyres". The historian Herrera suggested the idea that the word "Martyres" means "men suffering" because the many small rocky islands and ragged reefs of the area looked like "martyrs" - however, a more recent view implies that the Latin words mean the English phrase "islands of the marine trees" - referring to the many mangrove islands and coral forest along the nearby reefs of what is now the Florida Keys.
Another interesting view regarding the first Latin name of the Florida Keys can be found in the aforementioned book "New World Decades" by Peter Martyr d'Anghiera - who once describes the history of area. Part of the very name of the author "Martyr" can be found in the name "Cayos de los Martyres". The significance of this view is not yet understood - but may have influenced early historians and map makers of the area in naming the Florida Keys.
Today, just north of the Florida Keys and Florida Bay lies Ponce de Leon Bay, which receives the main nutrient flow of Everglades water that drains across Southern Florida. When exactly this particular bay was first named by map makers is not known, but the idea in naming it in honor of the man who is identified with a legendary fountain that gave youthful energy reflects the notion in which the spirit of natural healing still lives in the realm.
THE LOCAL NATIVES
On early maps of the region, all of Southern Florida was sometimes named the province of "Calos" or "Carlos" because of an important Indian chief named "King Carlos" who controlled the area and was leader of the Calusa tribe.
The naming of the Calusa tribe by the early Spanish who claimed Florida may be based on the concept in which the Indian leader "King Carlos" was named in honor of the European leader "King Charles" - which suggest the idea that the word "Calusa" is a European name of a New World Indian tribe. What the local natives originally called themselves is not sure, but other names can be used to identify the early inhabitants of Southern Florida by historians.
The early natives of the Southern Florida were a large race of humans who, according to Herrera, "treated their young with certain herbs which caused their bones to be soft so they could be stretched, then were nourished on special foods until they grew to giant size".
For example, on the island of Lignumvitae Key in the Florida Keys, a large skull belonging to a seven-foot native Indian was found that suggest some unique dietary salts of the area could help build a large race of humans. Perhaps calcium fluoride is the salt that could be found in the local environment and help build strong and flexible bones of the native inhabitants.
On other early maps of Southern Florida the name of "Tequesta" is found because Fontaneda once gave this name to a native settlement near what is now the mouth of the Miami River. Some historians have identified the Tequesta settlement as also being the same name of a local tribe called Tequesta.
However, apparently overlooked by most historians were the Mayami that lived throughout Southern Florida - including Biscayne Bay and the upper Florida Keys. The Mayami, from which the greater city of Miami is named for - and may be the original natives who built a newly discovered "Miami-circle" site with mathematical measurements on the south shore entrance of the Miami River, also lived north along the shallow seasonal flow of fresh water across the Everglades up to Lake Mayami - now known as Lake Okeechobee.
Several ancient Indian mound sites near Lake Mayami are testaments to the remarkable network of native communities that once lived in the area long before the first Europeans arrived some five centuries ago. A few miles east of the lake lies a series of prehistoric earthworks known as "Big Mound City" in which the largest mound measures roughly 300 feet by 800 feet across and nearly 25 feet high.
More Indian mounds near Ft. Center along Fisheating Creek on the western side of the lake and other ancient mounds near Bell Glade by the southern shore are additional examples of early Mayami village sites in the area.
Further north along the Florida east coast lived several other native tribes such as the Ais and the Jeaga. The Timucua tribes occupied areas of upper Florida where, according to recent geological studies, freshwater runs deep.
Two areas of deep freshwater sources, one near what is now the city of St. Augustine and the main deeper freshwater region in upper central Florida - near what is now the town of Zephyrhills, run nearly two-thousand feet deep. Some believe that these deep underground freshwater areas represent the elusive water source behind the Fountain of Youth legend.
Just east of the Florida Keys, across the Straits of Florida and on the northwestern Bahama Bank is the island named Bimini. The Lucayan family of natives were known to exist throughout the Bahamas and may have been first named by Columbus because of the lucent or luminous light he saw at night near the native settlements.
Near Bimini, just to the southeast, lies the largest Bahamian Island named Andros where the Arawak and perhaps some Carib Indians once lived and traded.
On one early map of the area, the words "Andros I. de Spiritu Santo" is printed along the western shores of Andros Island. The same map also reveals similar words for Lake Mayami on the nearby Florida peninsula - such as "Laguna de Espiritu Santo".
Apparently, the Spanish, who named several aquatic places on many early maps of the New World, believed the "spirit" of some important "saint" once roamed the area long ago.
Lately, the island of Bimini is known for the nearby underwater limestone formations called the "Bimini Road" - which some believe is linked to the lost continental island of Atlantis because of the assumption that only a great human effort by the legendary Atlantean culture could have created the large blocks of limestone.
However, recent scientific studies suggest that the underwater limestone formations were naturally formed when the elements of metallic calcium and nonmetallic Carbon developed into a thick salt layer of marl soil and, at a lower sea level period - when exposed to the sun and air as a calcium carbonate clay, were baked and harden into a somewhat rare cube-like block design pattern that appears to have been made by the hand of man. Similar limestone salt blocks can be found onshore the nearby beaches of North Bimini.
It is interesting to note that the discovery of these limestone salt blocks were "discovered" by a foretelling event when the renown prophet reader Edward Cayce suggested that "a sign of Atlantis" would be found in 1968 near the island of Bimini in the Bahamas.
The association that "a part of Atlantis" would be found near the island of Bimini and the known Caribbean legend about the Fountain of Youth near a place named "Bimini" suggest the idea in which Cayce subconsciously linked a unique place of youthful giving energy with the wonderment of the lost Atlantean age.
ATLANTEAN NATIVES
According to a new scientific overview of Caribbean history as revealed in the book project entitled SPIRIT OF ATLANTIS / The Treasure Adventure by Duane K. McCullough - the same author of LOST FOUNTAIN / Researching the Legend, real evidence exist that links the local natives with the Atlantean legend.
New anthropological evidence suggest the native inhabitants of the Caribbean once used a prehistoric binary language and alphabet based on Mayan mathematical formulas that they inherited from their ancestors known as the Olmec.
This lost binary method of communication is now being rediscovered in the West Indies and along the Atlantic Seaboard. What is very interesting and new to the historical understanding of this prehistoric language is that it is also extensively found in the Armorican realm of ancient Brittany and the British Isles - and also along the shores of Western Europe.
Known as Ogam or Ogham, it was once used to record information during trade expeditions throughout the Atlantean realm during the Neolithic Age. Ogamic communication, found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, is evidence of transatlantic commerce that predates the "discovery" of the New World by Old World seafarers.
Using fifteen consonantal "dashes" and five vowel "dots", this twenty-unit lost binary method of communication could also be used to send messages by way of smoke signals and drum beats. Even the fingers of the hands could be used to gesture Ogamic messages.
Because the Olmec natives have been called the "mother culture of the Caribbean" by modern historians - and because this ancient alphabet is found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, a new anthropological view implies the idea that a common maritime culture related to the Olmec once traded across the Atlantic Ocean long ago during ancient times.
The Olmec were known to have created very large stone relics and huge baby-face statues in what is now known as Central America. Their stone-cutting technology would almost match the science that, according to Plato's Atlantean legend, only the Atlanteans could create.
Perhaps that is why many believe the underwater stone blocks near Bimini are related to the lost Atlantean civilization and their forgotten stone-cutting technology.
ATLANTEAN LEGEND
Plato's Atlantean legend outlined the idea that Atlantis was three things now lost. It was a large continental island in the western Atlantic, a major capital trade seaport in the middle of that large continental island, and was also a great maritime kingdom that once controlled their colonies in the Old World.
Since Plato's Atlantean legend implies the idea that a large continental island in the western Atlantic existed in prehistoric times and was lost because the trade links were broken by a global antediluvian earthquake and flood, a unique idea exist in which the greater American New World continent, named just five centuries ago, is the original Atlantean continent.
The idea that the lost continent of Atlantis was renamed America is a concept not new. In fact, the scholastic writer Sir Frances Bacon suggested the concept nearly four centuries ago in his book NEW ATLANTIS.
Why no other historian since Sir Frances Bacon's book has seen this concept and attempted to elaborate on it is unclear - however, perhaps because no prehistoric capital seaport, also named Atlantis, has been found to date near the shores of America may explain the lack of theories on the subject.
A simple geographical and political overview of Plato's legend would suggest that "the lost continent" between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans - and the great mythical maritime kingdom of King Atlas, has evolved into what is now America and the Western Alliance of Latinized Nations.
As to where the elusive antediluvian capital seaport city exist in the middle of the New World Atlantean continent, that view is still awaiting a tangible discovery. If such a prehistoric site could be found to exist in the New World, then the conventional understanding of the origins of Western Civilization would dramatically shift from the Old World to the New World.
New scientific research into the subject of Atlantis by the SPIRIT OF ATLANTIS book project suggest a that a swampy level area near the western shores of a freshwater lake in Central America may yet yield evidence of the lost capital trade seaport once described by Plato.
Located atop a major fault line that separates the American Plate and the Caribbean Plate, and between two very important Mayan cities, this freshwater lake and swampy level area leads directly to the Caribbean Sea by way of a short river.
What makes this site area relate to Plato's description regarding the famous seaport of Atlantis was that the capital city was nearly surrounded by a flat area bounded by mountains which measured, according to a new mathematical research formula of the Stadia measurement used by Plato, almost ten by fifteen nautical miles.
The reason why this seaport site has not been discovered before today is because the city - which measures one and a quarter nautical mile in diameter, was buried under many layers of swamp mud during a major prehistoric global earthquake. Reoccurring earthquakes in the area have also engulfed the site beyond recognition.
The SPIRIT OF ATLANTIS book project also explores many new scientific theories about how the Atlantean legend is linked to a remarkable series of technological discoveries that, when realized by modern scientist, should greatly improve our understanding of nature and our ancestral origins.
How the Atlantean legend relates to the Lost Fountain of Youth legend is best understood by studying when and where our ancient ancestors first came into being in the New World. Both legends refer to the idea that a place once existed which could "rejuvenate the spirit".
FOOD OF THE GODS
Greek mythology, which includes tales related to the Titanic realm of Atlantis, refers to a unique garden place "in the western seas" named the Hesperides. This garden, home to King Atlas, was known for its Golden Apples - which if eaten, gave immortal-like qualities.
In fact, a new view exist that links the very name of the Caribbean with a fruit once used by the ancient rulers of the heavens. Apparently, when the first Europeans visited the area, they associated the name of a bean used by the native seafarers as food and money with what they thought was the Carob bean of the Mediterranean area, but was really the Cacao bean - from which the substance THEOBROMINE CHOCOLATE or "food of the gods" is made from.
Chocolate, like the legendary ambrosial nectar, is a very unique dietary substance. The Aztec leader Montezuma was said to drink no other beverage. It contains, among the alkaloid stimulant of caffeine, many natural healthy elements like calcium and phosphorus useful to the body.
It is believed that some could live on a diet of just water and chocolate a very long time. It is also interesting to note that the main element within the brain is a phosphorized compound - and that the element of phosphorus can also glow in the dark if stimulated properly.
Perhaps a unique diet of certain elemental salts were once known by the ancient gods and, like the Biblical saints with their aureoles or "halos", were capable of the "glowing head" phenomenon under certain low lighting conditions.
NUTRITIOUS SALTS
Among the many common elements found in most all briny lagoons in the Caribbean are the acidic sulfur compounds. Sulfur, which is a nonmetallic chemical element, when bonded to a metallic element creates a salt - and salts like calcium sulfate, sodium sulfate and potassium sulfate are essential tissue-salts found in any healthy body.
Other tissue-salts like calcium fluoride, calcium phosphate and several other important salt compounds are also very useful in maintaining proper health - in fact, there is a school of thought that suggest the body is made up of about twelve essential tissue-salts, which if any one of which is not supplied in our diet, the process of aging begins.
The idea in which improper amounts of dietary nutrients causes the aging process, is founded on the fact that if all the water was removed from the body, only these twelve tissue-salts would be left - so the essence of human life, less water, are these unique tissue-salts.
Any diet that contains elements other than these unique tissue-salts could either hurt or help the balance of human life - for example, if toxic lead or mercury were digested, then a negative balance would result and health problems would occur.
On the other hand, if other metals of the Periodic Chart of the Elements were digested properly then perhaps a positive balance may improve the health of the persons involved. For example, because the metallic element of manganese is known not to oxidize easily - or "rust" like its neighbor element iron, and because aging is a form of unbalanced oxidation, perhaps manganese, which is found in the chemical makeup of the many mangrove trees within Florida Bay, may have been somehow absorbed in the diet of the natives in the area and allowed them to live a longer life than other natives of the Caribbean.
Although mangrove trees and manganese exist in many parts of the Caribbean and the world, perhaps the unique chemical matrix of other elements in Florida Bay better enhances the ability to assimilate manganese from the environment.
However, there exists a more unique non-oxidizing metallic element than manganese. This unique element is found in seawater - but very diluted. Because this element is known for its ability to be very durable and malleable, and does not oxidize at all, perhaps gold, when concentrated by the unique evaporation and flushing process of Florida Bay, can neutralize the aging process if assimilated properly.
Other extraordinary health benefits could occur if gold were used in our diets. With the exception of silver, gold conducts electricity better than any known element. And because the body uses a low level form of electro-chemical energy to send information throughout itself, perhaps dietary golden salts are capable of conducting and generating remarkable energy within the body.
The secret of using gold as a micro-nutrient is based on the idea that the smaller it is divided as a salt and chelated by certain plants, the better it can be absorbed by the cells of the body.
Another secret associated with this view is that whatever nonmetallic chemical element which is bonded to the metallic element of Gold as a salt, should not be taken in the amounts that could unbalance the chemical makeup of nearby cells. For example, too much of the salt Gold Chlorite, which is used as a treatment for arthritis, will result in the acidic Chlorine element destroying nearby good cells.
Of course other elemental substances are involved in the idea of cell longevity such as the vitamins and enzymes that help in delivering energy throughout the body. Delivery of these important ingredients throughout the body is just as significant as discovering how they get to and into the body.
Vitamin E is known to help convey helpful elements by "thinning the blood - thus, together with the Vitamin B series of substances - which may be linked to the elements of sulfur, phosphorus and even colbalt, play a role in delivering and assimilating important nutritional elements.
IN SUMMERY
So it may be conceivable that the legendary Fountain of Youth story was based on the real lore of the native inhabitants of Southern Florida - and how a unique spring once contained micro-nutritional golden sea-salts that helped them live a long youthful life.
However, the begging question as to what happened to these native inhabitants who once lived near these springs remains a mystery. Some historians have suggested that the native inhabitants of the area were taken in slave raids by the Europeans during the early colonial period.
Perhaps a major hurricane washed them away - or maybe a disease wiped most of them out. Many factors may have removed the original natives from the area.
A more remarkable theory as to what happened to the original natives of the southern Florida realm lies in the unique understanding that the current natives -- both indigenous and recent immigrants, are the descendents of the original natives which have forgotten their ancestral heritage.
Because these legendary freshwater springs date to a time before the European Conquest of the New World - much longer than before any recent human development activity changed the freshwater flow in the area, the sea level has risen a few feet since then and the resulting coastline and water table is different - which may account for the "non-working" spring portals of today.
Although some springs in Southern Florida were documented in the last century as small seasonal "geysers", most of these sites are now gone because of agricultural and suburban needs.
Today, some fifteen-million gallons of natural freshwater from a well just northeast of Florida Bay is diverted by a pipeline to the residents of the Florida Keys every twenty-four hours. This freshwater would normally flow towards the Key Largo area if it was not diverted for human consumption.
It is believed that the shallow waters of what is now Florida Bay were mostly fresh during the last Ice Age because global sea levels were lower. When the ice that covered the northern hemisphere melted, the sea levels rose and flooded Florida Bay with salt water like it generally is today.
However, certain circular lagoons and basins in upper Florida Bay could have "contain" rainwater - which, when added to the natural freshwater flow from the nearby Florida Peninsula, may have helped create unique freshwater basins surrounded by saltwater.
These unique basins are connected by cracks in the coral bedrock which may have - and may still harbor, heavy sea salt elements like gold. The type of gold would not be the solid version - but rather a rich blend of other elements capable of enriching the environment if absorbed by plants and animals.
According to a book published nearly a hundred years ago entitled THE SEMINOLES OF FLORIDA, the present day Seminole tribe of Florida were taught a story about how a saint once came to live with them "at the most southern point of Florida" and "sowed the seeds of the koonti root".
Perhaps this sable-like arrowroot plant of Southern Florida, when found near some springs, is capable of "packaging the alluvial elements" from the local environment.
In any case, the great spirit that once existed here in this unique realm has returned to help us better understand the mystery behind the lost Fountain of Youth legend.