单项选择题

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Juan Ponce de Leon was the first Spaniard to touch the shores of the present United States. Just as Columbus had not remotely realized the extent of his momentous discovery, de Leon never dreamed that his "island" of Florida was a peninsular extension of the vast North American continent. After coming to the New World with Columbus in 1493, he had led the occupation of Puerto Rico in 1508 and governed it from 1509 to 1512. In 1509, de Leon started a colony at Caparra, later abandoned in favor of San Juan. He was one of the first adelantados -- men who "advanced" the Spanish Empire by conquest, subjugation of the Indians and establishment of a semi-military government.
In Puerto Rico he heard a legend about an island called Bikini, where there was said to be a spring that restored youth to all who bathed in it. It is said he was seeking this spring when he discovered Florida.
He sailed from Puerto Rico in March 15i3. On Easter Sunday he sight ed the coast. A few days later he landed on Florida’s east coast, near what is now St. Augustine. He named the place La Florida after the Spanish term for Easter Sunday -- Pascua Florida, or "flowery feast." He then sailed around the peninsular and up the west coast. He returned to Florida in 1521.
According to the passage, Ponce de Leon believed the land he discovered was