Nicuesa, Diego (1464–c. 1511)

Diego de Nicuesa (b. 1464; d. ca. 1 March 1511), Spanish explorer. Born in Baeza, Spain, and raised in the house of Don Enrique Enríquez, uncle of Ferdinand V, Nicuesa was appointed on June 9, 1509, as governor of the reportedly rich Veragua, or Castilla del Oro (between Cape Gracias a Dios, at the border of Nicaragua and Honduras, and the middle of the Gulf of Darién). He left Hispaniola in November 1509 with 700 men, but shipwreck and hunger quickly reduced their numbers. Nicuesa continued on foot from a river near Carreto, eventually establishing a small fort at Nombre de Dios. He departed upon learning that Martín Fernández de Enciso had encroached on his territory to establish the colony of Santa María la Antigua de Darién. Initially welcomed by the colonists to settle a dispute between Enciso and Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Nicuesa lost his popularity by ordering the surrender of all gold. He was forced to leave for Santo Domingo on an unseaworthy vessel on 1 March 1511, the last time he was seen.

See alsoExplorers and Exploration: Spanish America .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

D. León Fernández, Historia de Costa Rica durante la dominación española, 1502–1821 (1889).

Ricardo Fernández Guardia, History of the Discovery and Conquest of Costa Rica, translated by Harry Weston Van Dyke (1913).

Ricardo Blanco Segura, Historia eclesiástica de Costa Rica, 1502–1850 (1983).

Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., Central America: A Nation Divided, 2d ed. (1985), pp. 26-27.

Additional Bibliography

Ruiz, Bruce. Diego de Nicuesa: 1464–1511. 2002. http://www.bruceruiz.net/PanamaHistory/diego_de_nicuesa.htm.

                                          Philippe L. Seiler