LEON (Peter Cicca de), author of the history of Peru. He left Spain his native country at 13 years of age, in order to go into America, where he resided 17 years; and observed so many remarkable things, that he resolved to commit them to writing. The first part of his history was printed at Sevil in 1553. He began it in 1541, and ended it in 1550. He was at Lima, the capital of the kingdom of Peru, when he gave the finishing stroke to it, and was then 32 years of age.
LEON de Nicaragua, a town of North America, in New Spain, and in the province of Nicaragua; the residence of the governor, and a bishop's fee. It consists of about 1000 houses, and has several monasteries and nunneries belonging to it. At one end of the town is a lake which ebbs and flows like the sea. The town is seated at the foot of a volcano, which renders it subject to earthquakes. It was taken by the buccaneers in 1685, in fight of a Spanish army who were six to one. W. Long. 86. 10. N. Lat. 12. 25.