NICÆA OR NICE: A. D. 1402. Sacked by Timour. See TIMOUR. ----------NICARAGUA: Start-------- NICARAGUA: The Name. Nicaragua was originally the name of a native chief who ruled in the region on the Lake when it was first penetrated by the Spaniards, under Gil Gonzalez, in 1522. "Upon the return of Gil Gonzalez, the name Nicaragua became famous, and besides being applied to the cacique and his town, was gradually given to the surrounding country, and to the lake." _H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 1, page. 489, foot-note._ NICARAGUA: A. D. 1502. Coasted by Columbus. See AMERICA: A. D. 1498-1505. NICARAGUA: A. D. 1821-1871. Independence of Spain. Brief annexation to Mexico. Attempted federations and their failure. See CENTRAL AMERICA: A. D. 1821-1871. NICARAGUA: A. D. 1850. The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. Joint protectorate of the United States and Great Britain over the proposed inter-oceanic canal. "The acquisition of California in May, 1848, by the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, and the vast rush of population, which followed almost immediately on the development of the gold mines, to that portion of the Pacific coast, made the opening of interoceanic communication a matter of paramount importance to the United States. In December, 1846, had been ratified a treaty with New Granada (which in 1862 assumed the name of Colombia) by which a right of transit over the isthmus of Panama was given to the United States, and the free transit over the isthmus 'from the one to the other sea' guaranteed by both of the contracting powers. Under the shelter of this treaty the Panama Railroad Company, composed of citizens of the United States, and supplied by capital from the United States, was organized in 1850 and put in operation in 1855. In 1849, before, therefore, this company had taken shape, the United States entered into a treaty with Nicaragua for the opening of a ship-canal from Greytown (San Juan), on the Atlantic coast, to the Pacific coast, by way of the Lake of Nicaragua. Greytown, however, was then virtually occupied by British settlers, mostly from Jamaica, and the whole eastern coast of Nicaragua, so far at least as the eastern terminus of such a canal was concerned, was held, so it was maintained by Great Britain, by the Mosquito Indians, over whom Great Britain claimed to exercise a protectorate. That the Mosquito Indians had no such settled territorial site; that, if they had, Great Britain had no such protectorate or sovereignty over them as authorized her to exercise dominion over their soil, even if they had any, are positions which … the United States has repeatedly affirmed. But the fact that the pretension was set up by Great Britain, and that, though it were baseless, any attempt to force a canal through the