Western railway, by which it is 97 m. N.W. from London, and it is served by the Leicester-Birmingham branch of the Midland railway. Pop. (1901) 24,996, rapidly increasing. The situation is low and almost encircled by rising ground. The church of St Nicholas is a large and handsome structure in various styles of architecture, and consists of nave, chancel and aisles, with a square embattled tower having pinnacles at the angles. It contains several interesting monuments. A free grammar school was founded in the reign of Edward VI., and an English free school for the instruction of forty boys and thirty girls by Richard Smith in 1712. The ribbon industry is of less importance than formerly, but there are ironworks, cotton, hat, elastic and worsted factories, and tanneries; the making of drain-pipes, tiles and blue and red bricks is a considerable industry. In the neighbourhood there are also coal and ironstone mines. The prefix of the name of the town is derived from a priory of nuns founded here in 1150. In the reign of Henry III. a weekly market was granted to the prioress. Nuneaton was incorporated in 1907, and the corporation consists of a mayor, six aldermen and twelve councillors. Area 10,597 acres.
NUNEZ, PEDRO (Petrus Nonius) (1492–1577), Portuguese mathematician and geographer, was born at Alcacer do Sal, and died at Coimbra, where he was professor of mathematics. He published several works, including a copiously-annotated translation of portions of Ptolemy (1537), and a treatise in two books, De arte atque ratione navigandi (1546). His clear statement
of the scientific equipment of the early Portuguese explorers has become famous. A complete edition of all his writings appeared at Basel in 1592.
See F. de B. Garcão-Stockler, Ensaio historico sobre a origem e progressos das mathematicas em Portugal (Paris, 1819); R. H. Major, Prince Henry the Navigator (London. 1868, p. 55).
NUÑEZ CABEZA DE VACA, ALVARO (c. 1490–c. 1564),
Spanish explorer, was the lieutenant of Pamfilo de Narvaez in the expedition which sailed from Spain in 1527; when Narvaez was lost in the Gulf of Mexico, Cabeza de Vaca succeeded in reaching the mainland somewhere to the west of the mouths of the Mississippi, and, striking inland with three companions, succeeded, after long wandering and incredible hardship, in
reaching the city of Mexico in 1536. Returning to Spain in 1537, he was appointed “adelantado” or administrator of the province of Rio de la Plata in 1540. Sailing from Cadiz in the end of that year, after touching at Cananea (Brazil), he landed at the island of St Catharine in the end of March 1541. Leaving his ships to proceed to Buenos Aires, he set out in November with about
150 men to find his way overland to Ascension (Asunción) for the relief of his countrymen there. The little band reached their destination in the following year. After various successes
in war and diplomacy in his dealings with the Indians, Nuñez
was sent home under arrest in 1544, and in 1551 was banished
to Africa by the council of the Indies for eight years. He was
recalled in about a year and appointed to a judgeship in Seville,
where he died not later than 1564.
The Naufragios (“Shipwrecks”) of Cabeza de Vaca, which relate to the Florida expedition and his journey to the city of Mexico, appeared at Zamora in 1542; the work has frequently been reprinted, and an annotated English translation was published by T. Buckingham Smith in 1851. His Comentarios (1555) chronicle the events of the South American expedition. See Fanny Bandelier, Journey of A. Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca (ed. A. F. Bandelier, New York, 1905).
NUÑEZ DE ARCE, GASPAR (1834–1903), Spanish poet,
dramatist and statesman, was born at Valladolid, where he was
educated for the priesthood. He had no vocation for the
ecclesiastical state, plunged into literature, and produced a play
entitled Amor y Orgullo which was acted at Toledo in 1849.
To the displeasure of his father, an official in the post office,
the youth refused to enter the seminary, and escaped to Madrid,
where he obtained employment on the staff of El Observador,
a Liberal newspaper. He afterwards founded El Bachiller
Honduras, a journal in which he advocated a policy of Liberal
concentration, and he attracted sufficient notice to justify his
appointment as governor of Logrono, and his nomination as
deputy for Valladolid in 1865. He was imprisoned at Cáceres
for his violent attacks on the reactionary ministry of Narvaez,
acted as secretary to the revolutionary junta of Catalonia when
Isabella was dethroned, and wrote the “Manifesto to the Nation”
published by the provisional government on the 26th of October
1868. During the next few years he practically withdrew from
political life till the restoration, when he attached himself to
Sagasta’s party. He served under Sagasta as minister for the
colonies, the interior, the exchequer and education; but ill-health
compelled him to resign on the 27th of July 1890, and
henceforth he refused to take office again. He was elected to
the Spanish Academy on the 8th of January 1874 and was
appointed a life-senator in 1886. He died at Madrid on the
12th of February 1903.
Nuñez de Arce first came into notice as a dramatist, and he remained faithful to the stage for nearly a quarter of a century. In addition to three plays written in collaboration with Antonio Hurtado, he produced ¿Quién es el autor? (1859), La Cuenta del Zapatero (1859), ¡Como se empeña un marido! (1860), Deudas de la honra (1863), Ni tanto ni tan poco (1865), Quien debe, paga (1867) and El haz de leña (1872). But Nuñez de Arce’s talent was more lyrical than dramatic, and his celebrity dates from the appearance of Gritos del combate (1875), a collection of poems exhorting Spaniards to lay aside domestic quarrels and to save their country from anarchy, more dangerous than a foreign foe. He maintained his position (in popular esteem) as the only possible rival of Campoamor by a series of philosophic, elegiac and symbolic poems:—Raimundo Lulio, Ultima lamentación de Lord Byron (1879), Un Idilio y una Elegía (1879), La Selva oscura (1879) and La Visión de Fray Martín (1880). The old brilliance sets off the naturalistic observation of La Pesca (1884) and La Maruja (1886). The list of his works is completed by Poemas cortos (1895) and ¡Sursum corda! (1900); Hernán el lobo, published in El Liberal (January 23, 1881) and Luzbel remain unfinished. His strength lies in the graciousness of his vision, his sincerity and command of his instrument; his weakness derives from his divided sympathies, his moods of obvious sentiment and his rhetorical facility. But at his best, as in the Gritos del combate, he is a master of virile music and patriotic doctrine. (J. F.-K.)
NUORO, a town and episcopal see of Sardinia, Italy, in the province of Sassari, 3812 m. E. of Macomer by rail. Pop. (1901)
6739. It is situated 1905 ft. above sea-level in the east central
portion of the island, amid fine scenery. Nuoro was the capital
of a province from 1848 to 1860. It is connected by road with
Fonni, Bitti and Orosei. An inscription discovered in situ
about 13 m. W. of Nuoro in 1889, near Orotelli, has the letters
FIN NVRR (fin(es) Nurr. . .), which are explained as referring
to the boundaries of the territory of Nuoro in Roman times,
showing (what was not known before) that the name and the
place are of Roman origin (F. Vivanet in Notizie degli scavi,
1889, 202). (T. As.)
NUPE, formerly an independent state of W. Africa, now a province in the British protectorate of Nigeria. Under Fula rule, Nupe occupied both banks of the Niger for a distance of some 150 m. above the Benue confluence. Only the part of Nupe north of the Niger now constitutes the province; area 6400 sq. m.; estimated pop. about 150,000. It is in many portions highly cultivated, and owing to its admirable water supply is likely to prove particularly valuable as a field for the extensive cultivation of cotton. Bida (q.v.), the capital, is connected by railway (built 1907–1908) with Baro, a port on the Niger 70 m. above Lokoja.
Nupe had an ancient and very interesting. constitution of which the leading features were adopted by the Fula when their rule was established about the year 1859. Bida was founded in that year. Nupe was conquered by the troops of the Niger Company in 1897, and the legal status of slavery was then nominally abolished. The company was, however, unable to occupy the country, and on the withdrawal of its troops the deposed emir returned. In 1901 it became necessary to subdue Nupe a second time. British troops marched to Bida. The emir fled without fighting and was deposed. Another emir was appointed in his place, took the oath of allegiance to the British crown, and worked cordially with the British resident
