The Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon's obsession with discovering the fountain of eternal youth led him eventually to the land of flowers, or as we know it, Florida. Even now, there are those who claim that the bold adventurer did, in fact, discover such a fountain and that its perpetual waters contain the treasure of agelessness, or the much pursued "ever young" potion. Several years ago, somewhere in Florida, I took a drink from a fountain which was allegedly the genuine source designated by Ponce de Leon himself as containing the living water. However, I somehow manage to age, despite having consumed the magic water. Apparently, if the man did discover his treasure, he neglected to disclose its whereabouts.

Further west, sometime in the mid 1500's Francisco Vasquez de Coronado left Mexic…