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NKWTTLE. 



NICARAOUA. 



t» 



Quarter and petty MMioD* are h*M. Faira ara beM on the usoond 

 Baitutiay of every moDth, and on January 33rd, May 14th, and 

 8ept«mbrr SSrd. Near the oeutra of the town U an ootagooal itruo- 

 ture, with canopied niches, forming the pedeatal of a croaa, erected in 

 163d. Newtownarda wai incorporated by Jamea IL, and returned 

 two membera to the Iriah Parliament. 



NEWTVLB. rFoRrARSBiRB.] 



NOAIU, LAKk. [Africa.] 



NUQARA. [CasADA-J 



NlCiEA (iVtiaia), an ancient ruined city in Bitbynia, in the north- 

 waet of Aaia Minor, the aite of which is marked by the Turkish village 

 of Is-nik. It (tood on the eastern ahore of the iJake Aacania, and was 

 built or reetored by Antigonua, son of Philip, after whom it waa 

 called Antigooeia. The name was subaequently changed by Perdicoas 

 in honour of hia wife, Nicsa, daughter of Ptolomseua, king of E^pt 

 The city became early the aeat of a Christiau bishop. It was destroyed 

 by an earthquake in the latter end of A.D. 325, but it was restored 

 under the emperor Valens in 368. Aided by the Qreek Nicephoras 

 MrliMnmin, the Turks, under Solyman I., took the city (1080), which 

 waa made their head-quarters till 1097, when Oodefroi de Bouillon, at 

 the bead of the Crusaders, took it after a siege of 35 days, and it was 

 ■gain united to the Oreek empire. Two years after the establishment 

 of Uie Latin empire in Constantinople (1204) Theodore Lascaris made 

 Nieaa the Greek capital, which it continued to be till 1261, when, in 

 the reign of Michael Palssologus (who was crowned at Niaea the year 

 before), Constantinople was recovered by the Oreeks. In 1333, after 

 ■n obstinate and bloody siege, the Turks, under Orkan, again took 

 Nictsa, which they made their capital. After the battle of Angora 

 (June 30, 1402) it was taken and pillaged by the followers of Tamer- 

 lane. In 1422 it joined in a conspiracy to put Mustapha on the 

 throne of his brother, Amurath II., whereupon the latter reduced the 

 dty to obedience, and had his brother and the chief conspirators 

 *trangle<l in his presence. 



Sir Charles Fellowea, who visited the site of Nictea, says that the 

 walls form a circuit of four miles. These walls are strengthened with 

 towers. One part is built or repaired with materials of great elegance 

 from an ancient temple ; another part is built with Roman brick ; a 

 third with marbles of a late age, marked with the sign of the cross and 

 ill-cut inscriptions, shewing the repairs made in Christian times ; the 

 remaining parts are built of immense stones cut to fit into each other 

 in the Cyclopean style. Four large majestic gateways with arched 

 entrances still exist in an almost perfect state, but the inscriptions 

 that once covered them have been nearly altogether effaced. Among 

 the existing remains are many inscribed stones, copies of which are 

 given in Sir Charles Fellowes's 'Asia Minor;' ancient bas-reliefs; a 

 nw statues ; and ruins of an early Greek theatre, " of extremely good 

 workmanship, and colossal, the stones being some nine and others 

 fourteen feet in length." Ruins of mosques, baths, and bouses are 

 ■een among the gardens and corn-fields which cover a great space 

 within the ancient walls. In the village of I»-nik, which stands in the 

 centre of the ruins there is a small church, used by the Greeks for 

 their wonhip, with Mosaic floor and ceiling of the Byzantine age. 

 Every fence, trough, or paving-stone in the village and its neighbour- 

 hood is derived from this quarry of art, and many fragments of good 

 ■culpture are built into the houses. A Roman aqueduct still conveys 

 water to the town from the neighbouring mountains. In the lake, the 

 waters of which are of transparent cleamaaa, are the remains of an 

 ancient landiug-place. 



In the history of the church Kicaoa is memorable as the place in 

 which the first and seventh cecumenical or general ooimoils were held. 

 The first, held in 326 (June 19 to August 25), in presence of the 

 emperor Constantine, and presided over by Osius, representative of 

 Pope Sylvester, condemned the doctrines of Arius, maintained the 

 divinity of Christ, and declared the oonsubstantiality of the Son of 

 Ood with his Father to be an article of faith. The creed founded 

 open these decrees waa drawn up by Ositu ; it is the Symbolum Nicga- 

 nnm, that is, Niomie or Mioene Creed, sUll in use. This council also 

 fwsd decrees for oelabrating the festival of Easter on the same day 

 throogbout Christendom. A proposal forbiddmg priests who were 

 BMrtied before receiving holy orders, to live with their wives, wss 

 n^ieeled. The oouooU waa attended by 318 bishops from all parts of 

 tke Roman empire. 



The seventh general council, held in 787 (September 24 to 

 Oet0ber83),aiid attandad by 377 bishops, condemned the Iconoclasts, 

 ■ad ezplained the worship of images. 



^cllowes, itsia Jf taor ; Art dtViri^Ur U$ VaUt.) 



MICARAGUA, Republic of. Central America, occupies the hilly and 

 volcanic region exteoding from Salinas Bay to the Bay of Conchagua 

 on the PatdBo, and back to the Mosquito territory, ft may be Ukeo 

 generally as lying between 10° 45' and 14"' 10' N. hit, 84" and 87° 40' 

 W. long. ; and as bounded E. by the Mowiuito UrriVory ; N. by the 

 repubUc of Honduras; N.W. bv that of Salvador; W. by the Pacific 

 Ocean ; and S. by the republic of Costa-Rica : but the eastern boundary 

 is really undefined, Nicaragua refusing to acknowledge the right of 

 Um King of Mosquito to the trsct lying along the Caribbean Sea. The 

 area conaeqnantly is not agreed upon : that really under the authority 

 of the republic does not probably exceed 85,000 square miles, but 

 that oUinaed is of eotane much greater. Tbe population may be about 



250,000 : tbe chief part of whom are ladinoa, or mulattos*, and native 

 Indians. 



The coast along the Pacific from Salinas Bay to the Qulf of Con- 

 chagua bears nearly north-wosL It is throughout rocky and has some 

 harbours of much value. That which may just now bo regarded as 

 the most important, from its being the Pacific port for the Nicaragua 

 route connecting the' Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is San Juan del Sur, 

 north of Salinas Bay, which is formed by two promontories between 

 400 and 600 feet high, having an entrance above 3000 feet across. 

 The harbour is small, but well sheltered, and affords anchorage in from 

 2 to 10 fathoms water. About a mile from it is the nearly similar 

 harbour of Nacuacolo. Port Realejo, towards the northern end of 

 the state, is also a very good and much larger harbour, and is that 

 which prior to the opening of the Nicaragua transit route received 

 most of the foreign vessels trading with the republic. There is a very 

 narrow tract of tolerably level land along a good part of the coast 



Along the western side of the republic, at a few miles from the 

 coast, extends a ridge of low volcanic mountains, highest at the 

 southern end, aud generally decreasing in altitude as we proceed 

 northward : though one or two of the isolated peaks in the northern 

 part are among the most elevated. Several of these volcanoes appear 

 to stand alone or to have scarce any connection with the main ridge, 

 though standing in its general line of direction. The highest summits 

 appear to be Omotepec, which forms an idand in L^ke Nicaragua 

 (5100 feet above the sea) ; Momotomba, at the northern extremity of 

 Lake Managua, about the same height ; Mombacho, between Like 

 Nicaragua and the Pacific (4500 feet) ; Nindiri, between Managua aud 

 Masaya ; Felica ; El Viejo, and one or two others. Several of these 

 are active volcanoes. Another mountain tract, a part of the moun- 

 tain system of Hondiu-as, extends along the northern part of the 

 country. This part of Nicaragua is traversed by several ridges, some 

 of whose summits attain a considerable altitude. Between the ridges 

 extend many good-sized valleys, tbe principal being those of the Rio 

 de Segovia, and the Rio Escoudido. The remainder of the state 

 belongs to the plain of Nicaragua, of which however the larger portion 

 forms the Mosquito territory. This plain is but little elevated above 

 the level of the sea ; the Lake of Nicaragua which occupies a large 

 part of the Nicaragua section of it being only 122 feet above the 

 Caribbean Sea. Along the rivers it is wooded ; the rest of the plain 

 forms extensive savannahs, covered with a rich verdure, and present- 

 ing occasionally a clump of high trees. The climate being excesnively 

 hot and moist the white races have not formed any settlements ou this 

 plain, and it is only inhabited by independent aboriginal tribes. 



The few rivei-s which in Nicaragua fall into the Pacific are of short 

 extent and of little consequence. Those falling into the Atlantic are 

 longer and more important. Two considerable streams rise, as already 

 mentioned, in the northern part of the r<'public, the Segovia and the 

 Escondido ; the sources of some of their upper branches are not very 

 distant, but their outlets are far apart — that of the Escondido being 

 near tbe southern, and that of tbe Segovia towards the northern end 

 of tbe Mosquito coast The Segovia fiows past the town of tbe same 

 name, but both rivers belong more to Mosquito than to Nicaragua. 

 Tbe most important river of this republic is tbe San Juan, wbich 

 forms the boundary between Nicaragua and Costa-Rica, and falls into 

 tbe Caribbean Sea, near 11* N. lat. It is by means of this river aud 

 tbe Lake of Nicaragua, that one of the two great lines of communica- 

 tion is proposed to be opened between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 

 The river San Juan is tbe only channel by which the Lake of Nica- 

 ragua discharges its waters into the Atlantic. The Lake or Lagune of 

 Nicaragua is au inland aea, of a leugtheued form, being about 100 

 miles long and 40 miles broad where widest, without narrowing much 

 at cither end. It is the reservoir of a great extent of mountainous 

 country, and is deep enough to be navigated by vessels of considerable 

 size, baving about 100 yards from the beach generally a depth of 

 about 2 fathoms; and at a greater distance from 6 to 15 fathoms of 

 water along the southern and western banks. It is only very sliallow 

 along the north-east shore for a mile aud upwards iuto the lake. It 

 contains several islauds, among wliiuU that of Omotepec, near the 

 south-weatom bonk between Granada and Nicaragua, is remarkable 

 for a high volcano, and for its fertility and population, being inhabited 

 by a numerous and industrious tribe of ludiaus, who have a small 

 town, Moyagalpa, possess cattle, and raise maize, rice, &o. The river 

 issues from the soutli-easteru extremity of tbe lake ; its breadth varies 

 from 100 to 400 yards. About tbe uiiddle of its course tbe San Juau 

 receives from the south the Rio San Carlos, and lower down the 

 Serapiqui About 25 miles from its mouth the river divides into two 

 arms, of which the southern and vrider is called Rio Colorado ; the 

 other enters the sea near the harbour of San Juan del Norte. [Mosquito 

 Kjkooom.] The depth of water in the upper part of the course of the 

 San Juan varies from 9 to 20 feet, but in some places it is so shallow 

 that rapids are produced, and it contains numerous islands. The 

 lower portion of the river, below its bifurcation, is generally sliallow. 

 The mouth of the San Juan has a bar with sddom four feet of water 

 upon it The winding course of the river is somewhat under 100 

 miles. On the Pacific side there are however greater obstacles to the 

 communication between the two oceans than that presented by the 

 channel of the San Juan. At the narrowest part the distance between 

 the Lake and the Pacific is only about 16 miles, and on the coast 



