4G 
N I C 
turpentine, are here produced in very great plenty ; \yith 
which,and the produceoftheirfdver-mines,the inhabitants 
carry on a coniiderable trade with Panama and Nombre de 
Dios. It abounds in turkeys and parrots. The country it- 
felf is fo pleafant, as well as fruitful, that it is confidered as 
the garden of America; the hills and fands of the rivers 
abound with gold, and the fields and woods are perfumed 
with odoriferous plants and flowers; fo that, when the 
Spaniards firft vilited it, they called it Mahomet's Paradife. 
The natives are accounted Angularly ingenious, efpecially 
as mulicians and.goldfmiths. The capital of this exten- 
live province is Leon, called, to diftinguifh it from others 
of the fame name, Leon de Nicaragua, which fee. Gra¬ 
nada, formerly called Nicaragua, and erroneoufly fo de¬ 
nominated in our maps, is another little town, on the 
great lake of Nicaragua. 
NICARAGU'A, the chief lake in Spanifli North Ame¬ 
rica, is about 170 Britilh miles in length, from north- 
weft to fouth-eaft, and about half that breadth. This 
grand lake is fituated in the above province, towards the 
fouth of the ifthmus, and has a grand outlet, the river of 
St. Juan, to the Gulf of Mexico ; while a fmaller ftream 
is by fome fuppofed to flow into the Pacific. Under the 
direction and exertions of an enterprifing people, there¬ 
fore, this lake might fupply the long-wifhed-for paflage, 
in the moft direCl courfe, from the Atlantic into the 
Pacific. This lake is navigable for {hips of the line ; and 
the river of St. Juan is alfo navigable through its whole 
courfe for large fhips. On the other fide the fpace to be 
cut, in order to complete the communication, would not 
exceed, according to the beft and moft recent maps, ten 
or twelve Englifh miles; and, in order to open a grand 
navigation, might coft about 2.00,oool. fterling. The 
lake itfelf would afford the ineftimable advantage of a 
large internal port, capable of being defended by for- 
trelfes on both fides. This lake is remarkable for nu¬ 
merous farms on its fhores, abounding in horfes and bea¬ 
vers ; each having a little port, where canoes and barks 
arrive, and load with great difpatch. There are feveral 
pi&urefque illands, fome of which are volcanic. The 
water in this lake is faid to ebb and flow like the fea ; it 
abounds with fifh, but is infefted with crocodiles. 
NICA'RIA, an iiland in the Grecian Archipelago, 
eighteen miles long and three wide; anciently called 
Icaria, and the fea between it and Mycone, the Icarian 
Sea, from Icarus, the fon of Daedalus ; about twenty- 
feven miles eaft-north-eaft of Mycone. Lat. 37. 38. N. 
Ion. 26. 15. E. 
NICAS'TRO, a town of Naples, in Calabria Ultra ; the 
fee of a bifhop, fuffragan of Reggio. Here is an ancient 
caftle, in which Henry, the rebellious fon of Frederic II. 
was fome time kept confined. In the year 1638, this 
place was nearly deftroyed by an earthquake. It is eigh¬ 
teen miles fouth of Cofenza, and fixty-fix north-eaft of 
Reggio. Lat. 38. 3. N. Ion. 16. 37. E. 
NICA'TOR, a furname of Seleucus king of Syria, from 
his having been unconquered. 
NICA'VA, a town of Japan, in the ifland of Niphon : 
360 miles north-weft of Jedo. 
NICAU'AR, a town of the ifland of Ceylon : fifty 
miles fouth-weft of Trinkomaly. 
NIC'CA, atown of the ifland of Cherfo, in the Adriatic: 
twenty miles weft of Cherfo. 
NIC'COLI (Niccolo), a meritorious contributor to the 
reftoration of learning in Italy, w'as the fon of a merchant 
of Florence, in which city he was born in 1364. In 
obedience to his father’s commands, he palled fome of 
the firft years of his life in commercial purfuits ; but, as 
foon as he was enabled to follow his own inclinations, he 
devoted himfelf entirely to literature. He contracted an 
acquaintance with all the learned men at Florence at that 
time ; and, fuch was the ardour with which he purfued 
improvement, that he went to Padua for the foie purpofe 
of copying the works of Petrarch, which were then in 
high efteem. Tranfcribing manufcripts was a great part 
of the labour of a fcholar before the invention of printing; 
NIC 
and a number of works copied or corrected by Niccoli are 
ftill extant. With thefe, and others that he purchafed, 
he formed a feleCt and copious library for that age ; and, 
with a liberality fuperior to that of many collectors, he 
granted the free ufe of his ftores to all who requefted it. 
He alfo purchafed coins, gems, and other monuments of 
antiquity, which he was equally liberal in imparting to 
the public. He was conliderably inftrumental in pro¬ 
moting that difcovery of ancient authors which was the 
moft important fervice then to be rendered to letters. 
Poggio has recorded the pecuniary aififtance afforded to 
himfelf in his learned refearches by Niccoli, who was alfo 
the patron of Leonardo Bruni, Aretino, Carlo Marfuppini, 
and Ambrogio Camaldolefe. It was likewife chiefly 
through his means that Manuel Chryfoloras, Guarino 
Veronefe, Aurifpa, and Filelfo, were invited to Florence 
as public profeflors. It is to be lamented that one who 
fo well deferved the gratitude of fcholars, fliould have 
given occafion, by his behaviour, to the fevere inveCtives 
of fome ofthofe with whom he had been clofely connected. 
The difpofition to indulge in violent and calumnious 
abufe, which was then peculiarly prevalent among men of 
letters, renders it highly probable that the charges againft 
Niccoli are exaggerated by Guarino, Filelfo, and Bruni; 
yet the freedom of his cenfures, and his jealoufy of fupe¬ 
rior abilities, may have been the caufes of that expulfion 
of the Florentine profeflors which is imputed to him. It 
appears, alfo, that fome irregularities of his private con- 
duff involved him in difreputable contentions with his 
own family. If an idea of him were, indeed, to be formed 
from Poggio’s funeral eulogy, there is not a virtue, pub¬ 
lic or private, to which he might not lay claim. His me¬ 
rits as a benefactor to literature cannot, however, be dis¬ 
puted ; and he confulted its interefts after his death by 
the bequeft of his library to the public. This is affirmed 
to have been the firft public library opened fince the 
times of antiquity; his intention, however, could not 
have been carried into effeCt, had not the great Cofmo de 
Medicis undertaken to fatisfy the demands of his credi¬ 
tors, which were numerous. Niccoli died in 3437, at the 
age of feventy-three. He wrote nothing except a fliort 
treatife on the orthography of the Latin language. Shep¬ 
herd's Life of Poggio Bracciolini. Gen. Biog. 
NIC'COLS (Richard), an Englifh poet of fome efti- 
mation, born in London, of genteel parents, in 3584; 
and in 3602, at the age of eighteen, entered a ftudent in 
Magdalen College, Oxford, where he flayed but a fliort 
time before he removed to Magdalen Hall. He took the 
degree of B.A. 1606. After remaining here fome years, 
and being efteemed among the moft ingenious men of his 
day, according to Wood, he quitted Oxford, and lived 
in London, where he “obtained an employment fuitable 
to his faculty.” What this employment was, we are left 
to conjecture. The moft material of his works are his 
additions to the Mirror for Magiftrates, a book moft po¬ 
pular in its time, fuggefted originally by Boccace De 
Cafibus Principum; containing a feries of pieces by 
Sackville, Baldwyne, Ferrers, Churchyard, Phayer, Hig¬ 
gins, and Drayton. It was ultimately completed, and its 
contents new-arranged, by Niccols, (with, however, fome 
culpable alterations,) whofe Supplement to the edition 
of 3610 has the following title : “A Winter Night’s Vi¬ 
llon; being an Addition of fuch Princes, efpecially famous, 
who were exempted in the former Hillorie. By Richard 
Niccols, Oxon. Mag. Hall. &c. &c.” To this likewife is 
improperly fubjoined “ England’s Eliza ; or. The victo¬ 
rious and triumphant Reigne of that Virgin Emprefle, of 
facred Memorie, Elizabeth, Queene of England, France, 
and Irelande, See. See." His other writings are, “The 
Cuckow,” a poem, Lond. 3607. “Monodia; or, Wal¬ 
tham’s Complaint upon the Death of the moft vertuous 
and noble Lady, late deceafed, the Lady Honor Hay;” 
Lond. 3635. And he is fuppofed to be the author of 
“ The TwynnesTragedye,” which is entered in the books 
of the Stationers’Company on the 15 th of February, 1631. 
Wood's Athcn. Biog. Dram. 
4 NIC'COLUM, 
