ins of the natives glanced harmless
from helmet and cuirass, while every flash of the long, keen sabres
was death to an Indian, and the proud war-horses trampled the corpses
beneath their feet.

The fierce conflagration soon drove all alike out into the plain.
Many of the Spaniards could not escape, but perished miserably in the
fire. Several of the splendid horses were also burned. Soon all were
engaged hand to hand, fighting in a tumultuous mass by the light of
the conflagration. There was, perhaps, alike bravery on either side.
But the natives knew that if defeated they could flee to the forests;
while to the Spaniards defeat was certain death, or captivity worse
than death to every one.

De Soto observed not far from him an Indian chief of herculean
strength, who was fighting with great success. He closed in upon him,
and as he rose in his saddle, leaning mainly upon the right stirrup,
to pierce him with his lance, the saddle, which in the haste had not
been sufficiently girded, turned beneath him, and he was thrown upon
the ground in the midst of the enemy. His companions sprang to the
rescue. Instantly he remounted, and was again in the thickest of the
foe. The battle was fierce, bloody, and short. So many of the horsemen
had perished during their long journey that many of the foot soldiers
were protected by armor. At length the savages were put to flight.
Pursued by the swift-footed horses, they, in their terror, to add
speed to their footsteps, threw away their weapons, and thus fell an
easy prey to the conqueror.

The Spaniards, justly exasperated in being thus treacherously
assailed by those who had assumed the guise of friendship, pursued the
fugitives so long as they could be distinguished by the light of the
conflagration, and cut them down without any mercy. A bugle-blast then
sounded the recall. The victors returned to an awful scene of
desolation and misery. Their homes were all in ashes, and many of the
few comforts they had retained were consumed. Forty Spaniards had been
slain, besides many more wounded. Fifty horses had perished in the
flames, or had been shot by the natives. Their herd of swine, which
they prized so highly, and which they regarded as an essential element
in the establishment of their colony, had been shut up in an enclosure
roofed with straw, and nearly every one had perished in the flames.

This disaster was the most severe calamity which had befallen them.
Since landing at Ta