NUNEZ or Nonius, Pedro, Portuguese cosmographer, was born at Alcacer do Sal in 1492, and died at Coimbra, where he was professor of mathematics, in 1577. 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). See Navigation.

NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA, Alvaro (c. 1490-1564), Spanish explorer, was the lieutenant of Pamfilo Narvaez (supr. p. 234) 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 Pacific coast 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 Ayres, he set out in November with about 150 men to find his way overland to Ascension (Asuncion) for the relief of his countrymen there. After an interesting journey through the country of the Guaranis, the little band reached their destination in the following year. After various successes in war and diplomacy, in his dealings with the Indians, Nuîïez quarrelled with his countryman Domingo de Irala, whose jealousy he had excited, and the final result was that he was sent home under arrest in 1544, and banished to Africa by the council of the Indies. Eight years afterwards he was recalled, and appointed to a judgeship in Seville, where he died in 1564....