Note 147 — Chapter II · THE APALACHES.

Writers disagree somewhat as to the situation of this fountain. Hackluyt (Vol. V., p. 251) and Gomara (Hist. de las Indias Occidentales, Cap. XLV., pp. 31, 35) locate it on the island Boiuca or Agnaneo, 125 leagues north of Hispaniola. Some placed it on the island Bimini,—which, says Oviedo, is 40 leagues west of Bahama (Pt. I., lib. xix., cap. xv., quoted in Navarrete,)—a name sometimes applied to Florida itself, as on the Chart of Cristobal de Topia given in the third volume of Navarrete. Herrera, La Vega, Fontanedo, Barcia, Navarrete and most others agree in referring it to Florida. Fontanedo confuses it with the river Jordan and the Espiritu Santo or Mississippi. Gomara (ubi suprà, p. 31) gives a unique interpretation to this myth and one quite in accordance with the Spanish character, namely, that it arose from the rare beauty of the women of that locality, which was so superlative that old men, gazing upon it, would feel themselves restored to the vigor of youth. In this he is followed by Ogilby. (America, p. 344.)