Nix, Richard, an English prelate who flourished in the days of king Henry VIII, was born about 1564. He was educated with great care for the service of the Church, and after taking holy orders rose rapidly to positions of trust. He was finally made bishop of Nor- wich, and in this see used his intluence against the Re- formatory movement. He is by Burnet and Soames accused of very bad habits. The last-named ecclesias- tical historian says that bishop Nix was licentious and cruel, and that his zeal to suppress the Reformatory movement " was tempered by little or no sense of de- cency. He even made a jest of the sufferings to which those exposed themselves who were liable to be ques- tioned for heresy, and called such persons men savoring of the frying-pan" (//i«/. Re/, i, 477-8). In 1034 pro- ceedings were instituted against the bishop for a clan- destine correspondence which he had for some time held ■with the pope, and pleading guilty he was committed to the Marshalsea. He contrived, however, to make his peace with the government, and was soon after pardon- ed. He Avas blind in his old age, and died about 1040. (J. H. AV.)
Nixii Dii, a name applied among ancient Romans to those deities who assisted women in childbirth. Three statues were erected on the Capitol bearing this name.
Nixon, John, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in the County of Tyrone, Ireland, in April, 1789. His parents were converts of John Wesley. Young Nixon was much inclined to the reading of the Scriptures, and early experienced justifying grace. He soon commenced praying and exhorting in public, and after a time was employed to fill vacancies for the trav-
elling preachers. He was finally appointed to a circuit, and travelled four or five years. In 1820 he emigrated to this country, and preached in Connecticut, under the presiding elder, until the next session of the New York Conference, when he was admitted on trial. For the term of about twenty years he continued in the regular work, filling many appointments on circuits with various success. For a number of years he was on the super- annuated list, and in gradually declining health, result- ing finally in his death, which occurred Dec. 18, 1859, at Caroline, Tompkins Co., N. Y. "He was," says his brother, "sensible to the last, and died extremely happy." Niza, Marcos de, an Italian missionarj-, discoverer of Sonora, lived between 1510 and 1570. He was trained at Nice, and belonged to the Order of Franciscans when he was sent as missionary to New Spain, then governed by don Antonio de Mendoza. This viceroy, yielding to the entreaties of his friend, the venerable bishop of Chiapa, Bartolome de Las Casas, consented to send some mis- sionaries into New Galicia to assure the natives that the Spaniards wished neither to make war upon them nor reduce them to slavery, but only to convert them to the Roman Catholic religion, Marcos de Niza was appointed chief of this peaceful mission, and departed for Mexico, March 7, 1539. The expedition encounter- ed many hardships, and was only partially successful ; j^et Niza sent to the viceroy a marvellous recital of his discoveries. He boasted of the fertility and rich- ness of the countries he had traversed, as well as of the civilization of their inhabitants. He thus ex- cited the ambition and cupidity of Corte's and Mendoza, who resolved the conquest of them ; but each wished to appropriate it to himself to the exclusion of the other. Mendoza, however, was the most diligent ; and while Corte's was soliciting in Spain, he gave the order to don Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, governor of New Gali- cia, to march upon Cibola at the head of one hundred and fifty cavaliers, two hundred foot -soldiers, and several field-pieces. Marcos de Niza guided the expedition, which departed from Culiacan in April, 1540. This expedition was still more disastrous and unprofitable than the former; and Niza returned with Coronado to Culiacan, after a voyage, estimated by Gomara, of three thousand miles. According to the relation of Niza, " he had seen along the coast vessels witli prows ornament- ed with figures of gold and silver, whose captains made them understand by signs that they had been over the sea thirty days;" which shows, he adds, that the}' came from China, and had known America fur a long time. The following year Niza and another Franciscan made a new voyage into Sonora ; but they have left no detail upon this third excursion. The expeditions of Niza and Coronado, Avhile extending the known limits to the north-east of New Spain, produced no serious results, ■and destroyed none of the fables which were circulated about the countries situated between the Rio Gila and the Colorado. The false recitals of these travellers of the existence of the great kingdom of Tatarrax; of the immense city of Quivira, upon the shore of the fan- tastical lake of Teguayo, rapidly found credence. They doubted the existence of the El Dorado, which they placed under the 41st degree of latitude. Other advent- urers also were eager to renew the attempts of Niza. Numerous catastrophes alone could discourage them. We find the Relacione del reverendo Frad. Marcos de Nizza in the collection of Remusio (iii, 298) ; and Hack- luyt, in his Vot/ages, etc. (iii, 303-373), has also pub- lished A Relation of the Rer. Father Friar Maixos de Niga touching his Discover}/ of the Kingdome of Cevola, or Civola, situated about 30° of Lat. to the Noiih of New Spain. Ramusio has also given the Relacione che mando Francesco D. Vasquez di Coronado, capita- no generale delta gente, che fu mandata in name di sua maeta at paese novamente scoperto, quel che successe net viaggio dalle ventidue d'Aprile di questo anno MDXIj, que parti da Culiacan per innanzi et di quel che trovo nel paese dove andava (Venice, 1606, 3 vols, fol.), iii, 301-