Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/564

524 Guerra, one a rich merchant and the other a pilot, associated themselves with Niño for the enterprise, and left the port of San Lucas toward the end of May, 1499. After a rapid passage of twenty-three days they arrived on the coast of Tierra Firme in Maracapana. They visited the gulf that Ojeda called the Gulf of Pearls, and also the islands of Margarita, Coche, and Cubagua, where they obtained a large quantity of pearls in exchange for objects of little value. Niño now sailed up the coast to Punta Araya, where he discovered the famous salt-mines that are still called by the same name. He then returned to Spain and arrived in Galicia loaded with wealth after a voyage of two months. He was accused of keeping the fifth part that belonged to the king, and the authorities arrested him and confiscated his property. He died before the termination of the lawsuit that followed.

NIPHER, Francis Eugene, physicist, b. in Port Byron, N. Y., 10 Dec., 1847. He was graduated in 1870 at the State university of Iowa, where he became assistant in physical science. In 1874 he was called to the chair of physics in Washington university, St. Louis. The second state weather service, that of Missouri, was organized by him in 1877, and for ten years was maintained independent of official support. From 1878 till 1883 he conducted a magnetic survey of Missouri, doing the work under private auspices, and publishing the annual reports in the &ldquo;Transactions of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences.&rdquo; Prof. Nipher is a member of scientific societies, and since 1884 has been president of the St. Louis academy of sciences. His publications, including twenty-five papers on physics, have been contributed to the &ldquo;American Journal of Science&rdquo; and to transactions of societies. He is also the author of &ldquo;Theory of Magnetic Measurements, with an Appendix on the Method of Least Squares&rdquo; (New York, 1886).

NISBET, Charles, clergyman, b. in Haddington, Scotland, 21 Jan., 1736 ; d. in Carlisle, Pa., 18 Jan., 1804. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, and after a full course of study at the theological hall was licensed to preach, 24 Sept., 1760. He became popular as a preacher, and was soon settled over one of the churches in the town of Montrose. When the war began between Great Britain and the American colonies Nisbet, who was a man of advanced views and a liberal in politics, gave his sympathies to the latter. By this means he incurred not a little obloquy, and he soon began to find his position uncomfortable. He was an accomplished scholar, and when Dickinson college, Pa., was founded, its presidency was offered him, and Nisbet, having accepted the call, arrived in this country in June, 1785. Having experienced some unexpected difficulty with the faculty in the management, and especially in the arrangement of the studies, he resigned in 1786, but, a reconciliation having been effected, he was re-elected president in May of the same year, and resumed his place. In addition to the duties of the presidency, he lectured on logic, belles-lettres, philosophy, and systematic theology. His library, containing many rare and curious books, was given to Princeton theological seminary by two of his grandsons. Nisbet's works appeared after his death (1806). See a memoir by Dr. Samuel Miller (1840).

NISBET, Eugenius Aristides, jurist, b. near Union Point, Greene co., Ga., 7 Dec, 1803 : d. in Macon, Ga., 18 March, 1871. He was of Scotch descent, and his father. Dr. James Nisbet, was a pioneer of Georgia, a member of the convention of 1798 that framed its constitution, and a representative in the state legislature. The son was educated at Columbia college, S. C, and at Franklin college, Athens, Ga., where he was graduated in 1821. He studied law in Litchfield law-school, Conn., was admitted to the bar by special act of the legislature before reaching the age of twenty-one, practised in Georgia, and represented his county in the legislature tor many years. He was elected to congress as a Whig, and served from 2 Dec, 1839, till 3 March, 1843, when he resumed his law-practice. In 1845 he was appointed a judge of the newly organized state supreme court. In politics he was a strict constructionist, but supported William H. Harrison in 1840 and Henry Clay in 1844. He was a leader of the American party in 1855, and in 1860 supported the Bell-Everett ticket. He was a member of the state secession convention in 1861, and of the Confederate provisional congress.

'NITSCHMANN, David, Moravian bishop, b. in Zauchtenthal, Moravia, 27 Dec, 1696 ; d. in Bethlehem, Pa., 8 Oct., 1772. In 1724 he emigrated to Herrnhut, Saxony, where he devoted himself to the work of an evangelist. In 1732 he went to the West Indies as one of the first two foreign missionaries of the Moravian church, who declared their readiness to sell themselves as slaves if there should be no other way of reaching the negroes. Three years later, on 13 March, 1735. he was consecrated to the episcopacy at Berlin by Bishop Daniel Ernst Jablousky, with the concurrence of Bishop Sitkovius, of Poland, the two surviving representatives of the ancient episcopate of the Unitas Fratrum, which had been maintained amid many persecutions for more than two and a half centuries. After this he was almost constantly on official journeys both in Europe and America, Toward the end of the year in which he was consecrated he visited the colony that the Moravians had established in Savannah, Ga., sailing across the Atlantic in the same vessel with John and Charles Wesley, who were deeply impressed by the fearlessness that he and his companions displayed in the midst of a terrific storm. At Savannah, 28 Feb., 1736, he ordained Anthony Seifferth,»and this was probably the first ordination by a Protestant bishop within the bounds of the United States. John Wesley was present, and was so impressed with the simplicity and solemnity of the occasion that he imagined himself in one of the assemblies that were presided over by the apostles. In 1740 Nitschmann paid a second visit to this country, and founded Bethlehem, Pa., the chief seat of the Moravians in the United States. Four years later, while on his way back to Europe, the ship in which he was sailing was captured by a Spanish frigate, and he was taken to St. Sebastian and detained as a prisoner until 1745. In 1748 he visited the American Moravian churches a third time, and in 1755 he came to stay in this country, working with unabated zeal until the infirmities of old age called for rest. His life was one of extraordinary activity and great success. He labored in different parts of Germany, in Livonia, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, in England and Wales, in the West Indies, in Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York, and North Carolina, and in various regions of the Indian country. In the course of these labors he undertook not less than fifty sea-voyages.

NITSCHMANN, John, Moravian bishop, b. in Schoenau, jMoravia, in 1703 ; d. in Zeist, Holland, 6 May, 1772. He was one of the descendants of the Ancient Brethren's church who forsook their native country, relinquished all their possessions, and settled at Herrnhut, in Saxony, in order that they might enjoy religious liberty. In 1741 he was consecrated to the episcopacy, and eight years