Vitachuco organized a second plot against his captors five days later. During a meal with Soto, the Indian chief arose suddenly, gave a war cry as signal to his chained warriors and struck Soto unconscious with a blow to the face. The Indians fought with whatever sticks and weapons they could lay their hands, on, but in the end all were killed.

After the battle just described, which was ludicrous although bloody and cruel for the poor Indians, the Governor remained four days in Vitachuco 's town repairing damage that he and his men had received. On the fifth day, however, they went in search of a nearby province called Ocachile.

Having marched four leagues, they pitched camp on the bank of a great river marking the boundary of the two provinces. Since this river could not be forded, it was necessary to construct another bridge similar to the one built at the River of Ochile. When the framework was completed and ready to cast into the water, a band of Indians rushed up on the opposite shore to prohibit the work and defend the pass.

The Christians thereupon left off the construction of the bridge and made six large rafts in which they ferried 100 men, including arquebusiers, crossbow men, and 50 armed cavaliers bearing the saddles of their horses. When these men had landed, the Governor, who was present at all times in spite of the fact his face was swathed in plasters, commanded that 50 horses be driven into the river and made to swim across.

The Spaniards on the opposite bank, having received and saddled the horses, rushed with the utmost haste to the plain. When the Indians saw the horses in places clear of trees, they left the site undefended. This permitted the Christians to continue construction on the bridge, which they now threw into the river. With their customary diligence they completed it in a day and a half.

The army thereupon crossed the river and traveled two leagues through a treeless land. They came eventually to a place where they found great fields of corn, beans, and a type of squash known in Spain as Roman squash.

Beginning with these fields there were settlements which are separated and spread out over the distance of four leagues that remained to the principal town called Ocachile. This place contained 200 large and good houses and was the seat and

court of the cacique and lord of that land, who likewise was called Ocachile. Between the village of Vitachuco and that of Ocachile there are 10 leagues of level, pastoral land.

Ochile's town was laid out with several streets, and the chief maintained his residence atop a huge, artificial mound. A description of this mound is included in chapter 14 where it is pertinent to a discussion of Indian evidence. The chief himself had fled with his people into the forest. Soto rested there two days and then resumed his march.

Traveling without opposition for three days through the 12 leagues of wilderness that lie between the provinces, they came at noon of the fourth day to an extensive swamp. It was difficult to cross for the water alone, not counting the forests on both sides, was a half league wide and as long as a river.

Skirting the edge of this swamp was a jungle of tall, thick trees intertwined with a great undergrowth of bramble and other low bushes, so dense that they looked like a strong wall. Through this entanglement and mud there was no passage except that of a small footpath made by the Indians. It was so narrow that two men could scarcely walk it abreast. Before coming to the first wooded, area, the Spaniards encamped on a good plain.

While reconnoitering the passage, Soto and his scouts engaged in a fierce skirmish with opposing Indians. After driving away the defenders, Soto's men resumed the crossing.

They found that the whole stream was fordable in water up to the waist or thigh except for a space of about 40 feet in its center. Because of its great depth, this had to be crossed by a bridge made of two fallen trees and pieces of wood that had been fastened together.

Moreover, they discovered that underneath the water there was a path which was free of the plants and brambles growing on both sides of it -- just as the one through the forest had been. When they had crossed to the opposite bank, they found a second forest as dense as the one we have just mentioned and through which a person could proceed only by means of a narrow footpath that had been cut out by hand. These two forests and the swamp itself were each a half-league across; thus, in all, the distance amounted to a league and a half.