154 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOG1 [bull. 73 
the cabins and along the roads. Whether the chief was <\nu\ or alive was never 
known. The .son they found thrust through with a lance. 
After the end of the battle as described, they rested there until the 14th of 
November, caring for their wounds and their horses, and they burned over much of 
the country. 1 
Biedma's account of this affair is as follows : 
From this point (Coca) we went south, drawing towards the coast of New Spain, 
and passed through several towns, before coming to another province, called Taszaluza, 
of which an Indian of such size was chief that we all considered him a giant. He 
awaited us quietly at his town, and on our arrival we made much ado for him, with 
joust at reeds, and great running of horses, although he appeared to regard it all as a 
small matter. Afterward we asked him for Indians to carry our burdens; he an- 
swered that he was not accustomed to serving any one, but it was rather for others 
all to serve him. The governor ordered that he should not be allowed to return to 
his house, but be kept where he was. This detention among us he felt — whence 
sprang the ruin that he afterwards wrought us, and it was why he told us that he could 
there give us nothing, and that we must go to another town of his, called Mavila, 
where he would bestow on us whatever we might ask. We took up our march in that 
direction, and came to' a river, a copious flood, which we considered to be that which 
empties into the Bay of Chuse. Here we got news of the manner in which the boats 
of Narvaez had arrived in want of water, and of a Christian, named Don Teodoro, who 
had stopped among these Indians, with a negro, and we were shown a dagger that he 
had worn. We were here two days, making rafts for crossing the river. In this time 
the Indians killed one of the guard of the governor, who, thereupon, being angry, 
threatened the cacique, and told him that he should burn him if he did not give up 
to him those who had slain the Christian. He replied that he would deliver them to 
us in that town of his, Mavila. The cacique had many in attendance. An Indian, 
was always behind him with a fly brush of plumes, so large as to afford his person 
shelter from the sun. 
At nine o'clock one morning we arrived at Mavila, a small town very strongly 
stockaded, situated on a plain. We found the Indians had demolished some habita- 
tions about it, to present a clear field. A number of the chiefs came out to receive 
us as soon as we were in sight, and they asked the governor, through the interpreter, 
if he would like to stop on that plain or preferred to enter the town, and said that in 
the evening they would give us the Indians to carry burdens. It appeared to our 
chief better to go thither with them, and he commanded that all should enter the 
town, which we did. 
Having come within the enclosure, we walked about, talking with the Indians, 
supposing them to be friendly, there being not over three or four hundred in sight, 
though full five thousand were in the town, whom we did not see, nor did they show 
themselves at all. Apparently rejoicing, they began their customary songs and 
dances; and some fifteen or twenty women having performed before us a little while, 
for dissimulation, the cacique got up and withdrew into one of the houses. The 
governor sent to tell him that he must come out, to which he answered that he would 
not; and the captain of the bodyguard entered the door to bring him forth, but seeing 
many Indians present, fully prepared for battle, he thought it best to withdraw and 
leave him. He reported that the houses were filled with men, ready with bows and 
arrows, bent on some mischief. The governor called to an Indian passing by, who 
also refusing to come, a gentleman near took him by the arm to bring him, when, 
receiving a push, such as to make him let go his hold, he drew his sword and dealt 
a stroke in return that cleaved away an arm. 
Ranjel, Trans, in Bourne, Narr. of De Soto, n, pp. 120-128. 
