88 
N I K 
convent of nuns; and, in 1729, he was made abbot of 
Ilfield. From this abbey he was driven by the Swedes in 
1633 ; when he withdrew into Holland, where he was ftill 
a refident in the year 1649. Returning afterwards into 
Germany, he was made fuftragan of the archbifhop of 
Mentz, with the title of Bifhop of Myfia; and he died in 
the exercife of this office in 1657, when he w'as in the 
fixty-eighth year of his age. He was the author of, 1, 
Tradtatus Cliorographicus de nonnullis Alias Provinciis, 
ad Tygrim, Euphratem, et Mediterraneum, ac Rubrum 
Mare. 2. Comment. Logic, de Enunciationibus et Syl- 
logiftnis Modalibus. 3. Epigrammata, &c. But his prin¬ 
cipal works were in the controverfy mentioned above. 
Gen. Biog\ 
NI'JAR, a town of Spain, in the province of Grenada: 
twelve miles north-eaft of Almeria. 
NI'KA, a town of Perfia, in Mazanderan : fifteen miles 
fouth-eaft of Fehrabad. 
NIKALIN'ZIN, a town of Poland, in Galicia: forty- 
four miles fouth of Halicz. 
NIK'DE. SeeNiGDEH. 
NIK'ELSTADT, a town of Silefia, in the principality 
of Liegnitz. This place obtained its character on the 
flattering profpebt of a gold-mine, which however proved 
vain, and the place decayed. It is fix miles fouth-eall of 
Liegnitz. _ 
NIK'ERA, a river of Guiana, which runs into the 
Atlantic in lat. 6. N. Ion. 57. ao. W. 
NIK'IA, a town of European Turkey, in Macedonia: 
twenty-fix miles fouth-eaft of Akrida. 
NIK'IOS, a town of Egypt: five miles north of Menuf. 
NIKIO'PING, or New Mart, a feaport of Sweden, 
and capital of Sudermanland, fituated at the mouth of a 
river, near the Baltic. It is a well-built ftaple-town, and 
one of the moft ancient in the kingdom of Sweden, and 
was formerly the refidence of the kings and princes of Su- 
dermanland. The air is fo temperate and falubrious, that 
in times of a contagion the royal family, and thefeveral 
boards and offices, have frequently removed from Stock¬ 
holm to this place. Its inhabitants are above 12,000 
fouls; and the city is divided into two (nearly equal) 
parts by a large river, over which a ftone bridge was built 
in the year 1728. Nikioping was almoft confumed by 
fire in 1661 ; and fuffered extremely by the ravages of the 
Ruffians in 1719. Here was formerly a very ancient caftle, 
demoliffie'd in 1665 ; the kings of Sudermanland refided 
in-it, and it was fo ftrongly fortified that it was accounted 
little inferior to thole of Stockholm or Calmar. It has two 
handfome churches, a commodious harbour, feveral ma¬ 
nufactories of cloth and Morocco leather, a brals hammer- 
mill ; and it drives a confiderable trade by fea. Its chief 
magiftrates are two burgo-mafters. The governor of Su¬ 
dermanland alfo refides in a palace in this city. The 
Swedilli language is fuppofed to be fpoken in its greateft 
purity at Nikioping and its environs. Without this town 
is a royal inclofure, and the adjacent country is extremely 
fertile. It is fifty miles fouth-weft of Stockholm. Lat. 
58. 45. N. Ion. 16. 53. E. 
NIKITINSKA'IA, a fortrefs of Ruffia, in the govern¬ 
ment of Ekaterinofiav: fixty miles fouth-fouth-eaft of 
Ekaterinoflav. 
NI'KITSK, a town of Ruffia, in the government of 
Mofcow': twenty miles fouth-eaft of Mofcow. 
NIKLE', a town of Egypt, on the left branch of the 
Nile: ten miles fouth of Faoua. 
NIKOLAEVSKA'IA, a fort of Ruffia, in the govern¬ 
ment of Tobollk : fixty-eight miles weft of Omlk. 
NIKOLAEV'SKOI, a town of Ruffia, in the govern¬ 
ment of Vologda : thirty-fix miles louth-eaft of Totma. 
—Another, in the government of Tobollk, on the Un- 
debs : fixty miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Tomlk.—Another, 
feventy-two miles fouth-eaft of Enifeifk. 
NIK'OLAI, or Mikolow, a town of Silefia, in the 
lordlliip of Plefz: twelve miles north of Plefz,and twenty - 
feveneaft-north-eaftofRatibor. Lat. 50.8.N. Ion. 18.50.E. 
NIL 
NIKOLA'JEV, a town of Ruffia, in the government 
of Ekaterinoflav, on the Ingul, near the Bog, founded in 
1791. This town increafed very rapidly; and the ad¬ 
miralty has been removed hither from Cherfon. It is 
fixty-three miles north-weft of Cherfon. Lat. 46. ca.. N. 
Ion. 31. 55. E. 
NI'KOLSK, a town of Ruffia, in the government of 
Vologda, and province of Uftiug, on the Jug: fix miles 
fouth of Uftiug. Lat. 59. 55. N. Ion. 45. 34. E. 
NIKOL'SKOI, a town of Ruffia, in the government of 
Archangel: fifty-two miles weft-fouth-weft of Archangel. 
—Another, on the Onega: feventy-two miles fouth-eaft 
of Oneg.—Another, fifty-tw'o miles fouth of Mezen.— 
Another, in the government of Vologda : twenty-four 
miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Vologda.—Another, in the go¬ 
vernment of Upha, on the Ural: eighty miles eaft-fouth- 
eaft of Orenburg.—Another, in the government of To¬ 
bollk: forty miles north of Tomlk. 
NIK'SAR. See Nicsar, p. 77. 
NIL, /", in botany. SeeCoN volvulus and Indigofera. 
NIL CUN'D, a town of Thibet: leventy-five miles 
north of Catmandu. Lat. 29. 18. N. Ion. 84. 57. E. 
NI'LAB, a name given to the river Indus or Sinde, in 
Thibet. 
NI'LAS, a town of Mexico, in the province of Culia- 
can : fifty miles north-eaft of Culiacan. 
NILE, a famous river of Africa, which rifes in the 
Gebel-el-Rumr, or Mountains of the Moon, in a diftridi 
called Donga, near the village of Geeffi, in lat. 10. 59. N. 
Ion. 36. 55. 30. E. It is firft known by the name of Bahr-el-- 
Abiad, or the WhiteRiver; and about lat. 16. N. is joined 
by the Bahr-el-Azrek, or Blue River; the former tinged 
with red, and the latter clear; and, after feveral wind¬ 
ings and turnings, and being united with various other 
ftreams, it enters Egypt at Afl’ouan, or Syene. In its 
courfe it walhes the walls of many cities and towns ; and, 
having divided Egypt into two parts, it difcharges itfelf 
byfeven mouths into the Mediterranean in lat. 31.25. N. 
The comparative courfe of the Nile may be eftimated at 
about 2000 Britifn miles, thus ft vaili ng the longeft Afiatic 
rivers, and being only exceeded by the Ob, Kian-ku, and 
Iloan-ho ; alfo by the Maranon, and probably by the 
Milfouri. This river forms fome confiderable cat a rafts, 
the chief of which is that of Granadil in Nubia in lat. 22. N. 
before it gains the level of Egypt, after paffing fome rapids 
to the fouth of Syene. 
Alvarez long ago obferved, that the rife of the Nile in 
Egypt is occafioned by the violent rains, which, during 
the fummer, de'uge the fouthern regions; and he might 
alfo have added, the melting of the fnow on the African 
Alps, which give fonree to the real Nile, or Bahr-el- 
Abiad; for, as the Atlas is covered with perpetual fnow’, 
which alfo crowns the Andes under the equator, it is pro¬ 
bable that the central ridge of Africa prefents the fame 
features, and that an ancient geographer might have been 
frozen to death in his torrid zone. Befides this, Abyffinia, 
through which the Abyffinian Nile, or Bahr-el-Azrek, 
pafles, is one of the moft mountainous and precipitous 
countries in the world. 
The fertility of Egypt, which is for the greateft part a 
narrow vale, through which the Nile pafles, has been ge¬ 
nerally aferibed to the inundations of this river; but this 
is applicable in a ftrift fenfe only to parts of the Delta; 
whereas in other diftridls there are canals, and the adja¬ 
cent lands are generally watered by machines. Mr. Gray’s 
defcription of Egypt, as immerfed under the influx of the 
Nile, though exquilitely poetical, is far from being juft. 
In Upper Egypt the river is confined by high banks, which 
prevent any inundation into the adjacent country. This 
is alfo the cafe in Lower Egypt, except at the extremities 
of the Delta, where the Nile is never more than a few feet 
below the furface of the ground, and where of courfe in¬ 
undation takes place. But the country, as we may ima¬ 
gine, is without habitations. The fertility of Egypt, 
fays Mr. Browne, the intelligent and obferving traveller 
now 
