Diego de Nicuesa was a Spanish conquistador and explorer. In 1506, he was given the job of governing Costa Rica, but ran aground off the coast of Panama. He made his way north overland, against resistance from the native population. The combination of guerrilla warfare and tropical disease killed half his expedition before he gave up.

Around 1509, under a land grant from the Spanish king, he became founder and governor of the colony of Castilla de Oro, in what is now Panama, one of the first two Spanish settlements on the American mainland (different sources give dates from 1508 to 1510).

In 1510, he founded Nombre de Dios.

In 1511, the colony of Darien, seeing Nicuesa was an insane tyrant, voted him out of Darien. Nicuesa and his crew drowned during their return to Hispaniola.

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