I debated the fact about the Spanish involvement was too high. However, I came to the conclusion that it made perfect sense. Ponce de Leon was a Spanish explorer who claimed to have found the Fountain, with the beginning why wouldn't the Spanish want to try and go there?
And the ending was one of the only BIG predictions you could have made in the movie, and the whole thing with the voodoo, "zombifying," and sword was that Blackbeard was practicing black magic or something. I don't think it was intended to be explained.