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beyond the walls, and succeeded in killing several horses. They captured all the baggage of the Spaniards, knocked off the chains of the slaves, set them at liberty, and gave them weapons to fight with. When the Spaniards, however, had mounted their horses and ranged themselves in order of battle, they made head against their enemies, who could not stand the charge of the cavalry, but retreated into the town. The walls were provided with embrasures, and at every fifty paces was a tower capable of containing eight or ten men. Covered by these fortifications, the Indians maintained their post and poured. such a shower of arrows and other missiles upon their assailants, that they soon drove them to a distance from the walls.

Soto now changed his plan of attack, and endeav ored to decoy the Indians out of the town by feigning to retreat. He partly succeeded in this manœuvre, and the Indians suffered a considerable loss. The rear division of his army had now arrived, and a council of war was held. Some of the officers thought it too desperate an attempt to continue the assault, and advised a close siege of the place. It was decided, however, to storm it immediately. The cavalry, being the best armed, were ordered to dismount, buckle their armor close round them, and, stooping their heads, to rush forward and burst open the gates. A terrible slaughter took place at the first onset, for the Indians defended the gates with the utmost obstinacy. Several times were the Spaniards beaten back. At length the gates were forced, and the Spaniards entered pell-mell among their enemies. A new conflict

now commenced in the streets; the Indians took possession of the houses, and held out, disputing every inch of ground. The Spaniards, overcome with thirst in the long-contested battle, relieved themselves by drinking from a pool near the wall, but it contained as much blood as water.

Soto found it impossible to drive the Indians from their houses, and he resolved on the dreadful expedient of setting them on fire. This was immediately done, and, the buildings being all constructed of very inflammable materials, the whole town was at once in a blaze. The wretched natives attempted to save themselves by flight, but the cavalry surrounded the place and drove them back into the flames. In this last extremity, the Indians called on the females to come forward. A number of these heroines had not waited for the call, but had fought side by side with their husbands; now, at the general summons, they rushed forth in one body against the Spanish troops, who, ashamed to maintain a fight against women, it is said merely warded off their blows. In the end, however, the women were all dispersed, and those who did not perish in the flames escaped into the woods.

Such was the dreadful battle of Mauvila, the most sanguinary Indian fight that ever occurred in the territory of the United States. It lasted nine hours, and twenty-five hundred Indians were killed or burnt to death; the historian Vega even swells this amount to eleven thousand. The number of Spaniards who fell amounted only to eighteen; a hundred and fifty were wounded, and the number of wounds amounted

to seven hundred. They lost all their baggage and the pearls and valuable articles which they had collected during the whole expedition. Tascaluza was never heard of after the battle, having doubtless perished in the flames. His son was killed fighting, and his body was afterwards found. The Spaniards were so much disheartened by their losses, that they wished to abandon their enterprise; but Soto could not endure the thought of returning to his country without some brilliant and successful achievement. He had such a command over his followers as to prevent their mutiny, and encouraged them to continue their march into the interior, from which he was destined never to return.

Tascaluza appears to have been highly famous in his day, and his memory long continued among the Indians of Florida, if indeed it be yet extinct. Tuscaloosa, the present capital of Florida, still preserves his name, and points out the locality of his dominions.

VITACHUCO,

A FLORIDIAN cacique, was the oldest of three brothers, who divided the government of their tribe among them, contrary to the general practice in that country; Vitachuco, probably from his seniority, claiming much the greater portion. This divided authority appears not to have led to any family feuds, and when the Spaniards, under Hernando de Soto, invaded Florida, in 1539, they found the three brothers living in perfect amity. Soto had penetrated into the country with a formidable force of horse and foot. He traversed a great part of East Florida, Southern Georgia and Alabama, searching everywhere for gold, and almost everywhere encountering the hostility of the natives. In the course of his march, he came to the territory of Vitachuco, which appears to have been situated on the streams which flow through West Florida into the Gulf of Mexico. The first town he visited in this quarter was Ochile, on the frontier of the territory, consisting of about fifty houses. The Indians here had made no hostile demonstrations against the Spaniards, yet Soto did not hesitate to assault the place. The Indians, overcome by surprise at this attack, which was made early in the morning, and astounded by the clangor of the Spanish drums and trumpets, took instantly to flight. The town was captured, and many of the inhabitants were made prisoners, among whom was Ochile, the brother of Vitachuco.

Soto, having Ochile in his possession, made himself acquainted with the state of the country, and persuaded his prisoner to send to Vitachuco and the remaining brother, such exaggerated accounts of the Spaniards as, he hoped, would induce them to submit without offering resistance. With the latter, this manœuvre was successful; but Vitachuco was not so easily gained. Ochile assured him that the Spaniards were celestial beings, the children of the sun and moon, and rode on wonderfully strange animals, who were so swift of foot that the wind could hardly overtake them. He informed him that they behaved in the most friendly manner to those who received them well, but exercised all manner of severities against their enemies. He begged him, therefore, as an act of prudence, to submit at once to their authority. Vitachuco answered in a tone of determined and lofty defiance, which, the Spanish historian declares, surpassed the bravadoes of Ariosto's cavaliers. He told his brother that he was a coward for submitting to the invaders, and that he talked like a woman, or a boy, in advising him to follow his example. As for the Spaniards, their story about being born of the sun and moon was a ridiculous lie; that, whatever might be their outward pretensions, they were certainly like all the rest of their countrymen, vagabonds, traitors, liars, robbers, murderers, and children of the devil; that if they were the honest men they called themselves, they would stay at home and mind their own business, instead of roaming about, plundering and butchering people who had done them no harm. This lecture to the captive chief was

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