1479: Who and when discovered Florida?

Just ran into some interesting info within the below 18th century books. What do you think about the following?

• 1700 Geography rectified; or, a description of the world

• 1725 Geography Anatomiz'd, Or, The Geographical Grammar

As far as we know, the official PTB date for the discovery of the "New World" is 1492. For Florida we have the following data:

• In 1513, Ponce de León led the first known European expedition to La Florida, which he named during his first voyage to the area.
  • Juan Ponce de León - Wikipedia
• Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, who led the first European expedition to Florida in 1513, named the state in tribute to Spain’s Easter celebration known as “Pascua Florida,” or Feast of Flowers.
  • Florida

KD: What do you think? Why do we have this 1479 date?

• Who was this John Depony?

The below was published as late as 1747. Are we supposed to have this info circulating that late?

• And I'm not talking about the natives being white. In the language paragraph... do they imply that Florida was isolated after its discovery?