Nicarao was the most important cacique or Indian chief at the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in what today is Southeastern Nicaragua in 1522, although Columbus, on his 4th and last voyage, had already set foot in Nicaragua in 1502. According to some historians, the modern name Nicaragua is the Hispanized version of the phoneme Nicarao where the "o" has been dropped and the "gua" ending added to indicate land, territory or country.