Editing Diego de Nicuesa

{{short description|Spanish conquistador and royal governor of Panama}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Diego de Nicuesa
| image              = 
| caption            = 
| birth_date         = 
| birth_name         = 
| alias              = 
| birth_place        = 
| death_date         = 1511
| death_place        = [[Santa María la Antigua del Darién]], [[Panama]] (present-day [[Colombia]])
| death_cause        = 
| body_discovered    = 
| education          = 
| occupation         = [[Conquistador]] and explorer
| spouse             = 
| partner            = 
| known_for          = Mysterious disappearance
}}
'''Diego de Nicuesa''' ({{IPA|es|ˈdjeɣo ðe niˈkwesa|lang}}; died 1511) was a Spanish [[conquistador]] and explorer.<ref name="Andagoya">{{cite book|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Narrative_of_the_Proceedings_of_Pedrarias_Davila/Narrative_of_Pascual_de_Andagoya|title=Narrative of the Proceedings of Pedrarias Davila|first=Pascual de|last=Andagoya|publisher=The Hakluyt Society |accessdate=21 June 2019|via=Wikisource}}</ref> He was the first governor of [[Veragua]], a region stretching from [[Panama]] to northern [[Nicaragua]], during the Spanish colonial period.

==Background==
Diego arrived [[Santo Domingo]] in April 1502, with [[Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres]]' flotilla.<ref name="Floyd">{{cite book|last1=Floyd|first1=Troy|title=The Columbus Dynasty in the Caribbean, 1492-1526|date=1973|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|location=Albuquerque|pages=53,130}}</ref>

In 1506, Nicuesa was given the job of governing [[Costa Rica]], but ran aground off the coast of [[Panama]]. He made his way north overland, against resistance from the native population. The combination of [[guerrilla warfare]] and tropical disease killed half his expedition before he gave up.

In 1508, Diego de Nicuesa received a land grant at [[Veragua]] from [[Ferdinand&nbsp;II of Aragon]], the Spanish monarch.<ref name=Floyd/>{{rp|95,134–135}} He became founder and governor of [[Castilla de Oro]], in what is now Panama, one of the first two Spanish settlements on the American mainland.

==Final events and disappearance==
In 1510 he founded the colony of [[Nombre de Dios, Colón|Nombre de Dios]]. The colony suffered from hunger, hostile natives, and illness, and was ultimately saved by the arrival of Colmenares, a companion who was coming after with supplies. The party abandoned the colony to sail to the more prosperous colony of [[Santa María la Antigua del Darién]], which had been established by the conquistador [[Vasco Núñez de Balboa]] without the knowledge of Nicuesa. Informed by Colmenares of the new colony established within the borders of his territory, he headed to the colony to punish the colonists and take possession of it. But the colonists of Santa Maria were warned of the governor's intent and denied him entry. While most of Nicuesa's men were granted the right to stay in Balboa's colony, Nicuesa and 17 loyal followers were put out to sea. Nicuesa headed for the ''Santo Domingo'', but the ship disappeared and he was never seen again.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Parish|first1=Helen Rand|last2=Weidman|first2=Harold E., S.J.|date=1976-08-01|title=The Correct Birthdate of Bartolomé de las Casas|journal=Hispanic American Historical Review|volume=56|issue=3|pages=385–403|doi=10.1215/00182168-56.3.385|issn=0018-2168|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of people who disappeared mysteriously at sea]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicuesa, Diego De}}
[[Category:1510s missing person cases]]
[[Category:1511 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century Spanish explorers]]
[[Category:Deaths by drowning]]
[[Category:People lost at sea]]
[[Category:Royal governors of Panama]]
[[Category:Spanish city founders]]
[[Category:Spanish conquistadors]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]