<P> Found within the salt water mangrove swamp that covers 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) of the shoreline of North Bimini is The Healing Hole, a pool that lies at the end of a network of winding underground tunnels . During outgoing tides, these channels pump cool, mineral - laden fresh water into the pool . Because this well was carved out of the limestone rock by ground water thousands of years ago it is especially high in calcium and magnesium . Magnesium, which has been shown to improve longevity and reproductive health, is present in large quantities in the sea water . While it is not known whether any legend about healing waters was widespread among the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, the Italian - born chronicler Peter Martyr attached such a story drawn from ancient and medieval European sources to his account of the 1514 voyage of Juan Diaz de Solis in a letter to the pope in 1516, though he did not believe the stories and was dismayed that so many others did . </P> <P> In the 16th century the story of the Fountain of Youth became attached to the biography of the conquistador Juan Ponce de León . As attested by his royal charter, Ponce de León was charged with discovering the land of Beniny . Although the indigenous peoples were probably describing the land of the Maya in Yucatán, the name--and legends about Boinca's fountain of youth--became associated with the Bahamas instead . However, Ponce de León did not mention the fountain in any of his writings throughout the course of his expedition . </P> <P> The connection was made in Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo's Historia general y natural de las Indias of 1535, in which he wrote that Ponce de León was looking for the waters of Bimini to regain youthfulness . Some researchers have suggested that Oviedo's account may have been politically inspired to generate favor in the courts . A similar account appears in Francisco López de Gómara's Historia general de las Indias of 1551 . In the Memoir of Hernando d'Escalante Fontaneda in 1575, the author places the restorative waters in Florida and mentions de León looking for them there; his account influenced Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas' unreliable history of the Spanish in the New World . Fontaneda had spent seventeen years as an Indian captive after being shipwrecked in Florida as a boy . In his Memoir he tells of the curative waters of a lost river he calls "Jordan" and refers to de León looking for it . However, Fontaneda makes it clear he is skeptical about these stories he includes, and says he doubts de León was actually looking for the fabled stream when he came to Florida . </P> <P> Herrera makes that connection definite in the romanticized version of Fontaneda's story included in his Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos en las islas y tierra firme del Mar Oceano . Herrera states that local caciques paid regular visits to the fountain . A frail old man could become so completely restored that he could resume "all manly exercises...take a new wife and beget more children ." Herrera adds that the Spaniards had unsuccessfully searched every "river, brook, lagoon or pool" along the Florida coast for the legendary fountain . </P>

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