Juan Ponce de Leon was the first Spanish explorer to arrive in Florida. An early Spanish conquistador, he is believed to have been born in 1460 in Santervas de Campos in central Spain. In 1493 he accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to America, landing in Hispaniola, present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Ponce de Leon later served as a military commander and governor in Hispaniola from 1502 to 1508, where a land grant and Indian labor increased his wealth and prestige by supplying produce and livestock to Spanish ships returning to Spain. He led an expedition to Puerto Rico in 1506, discovered gold there, and was appointed governor of Puerto Rico from 1509 to 1511. In early 1512 he was commissioned to explore for treasure and new territories for Spain. In the spring of 1513 he sailed for the Islands of Benimy with three ships, the Santa Maria de la Consolacion, the Santiago, and the San Cristobal. On Easter morning, March 27, 1513, his expedition discovered land, an island off the east coast of the mainland of what is now Florida, and a week later landed between present-day St. Augustine and Cape Canaveral. Because it was Easter time, Pascua Florida, he named the land La Florida and claimed it for Spain. He sailed around La Florida and in May 1513 became the first European to enter Bahia de Carlos, present-day Charlotte Harbor, and anchored off Matanca Island, Pine Island. He found no gold during the three weeks he spent there, but he did encounter unfriendly Calusa Indians, and after several clashes his expedition sailed away on June 15, 1513. In 1521 he returned to Charlotte Harbor with 200 men, including priests, farmers, and artisans, 50 horses and other domestic animals, and farming implements to establish a colony. He anchored off a fat point, Punta Gorda, and set up a camp there, with converting the Indians to Christianity as a main mission. The Calusa resisted fiercely, and after a few months the camp was attacked and abandoned. During the retreat, Juan Ponce de Leon was struck by a poisoned arrow that could not be dislodged. He sailed to Cuba, where he died of his wounds in July 1521.