The prisoners taken on this occasion amounted to above a thousand men, who were distributed as servants among the Spanish troops.  Vitacucho gave these men secret orders to fall upon and destroy the Spaniards while at dinner, and appointed the seventh day after the engagement for the execution of this new plot.  On that day, while Vitacucho as usual was at dinner along with Soto and the principal Spanish officers, he started up on a sudden and gave a loud whoop or war cry, which was the appointed signal of attack, and laying hold of Soto gave him so violent a blow with his fist as knocked him to the ground, and immediately fell upon him endeavouring to kill him; but the other officers who were at dinner killed Vitacucho immediately.  On hearing the signal from the cacique, all the other Indians attacked their masters, some with fire-brands, others with the cooking kettles, pitchers, or whatever they could get hold of, of which the fire-brands did most harm; but as the Spaniards immediately seized their arms in their defence, all the Indians were slain.

Four days after this fray, the troops marched to another town called Osachile after the name of its cacique.  Coming to a river which could not be forded, it was proposed to construct a bridge similar to that employed on a former occasion; but on account of opposition from a body of Indians on the farther bank it was necessary in the first place to drive these away.  For this purpose an hundred men armed with muskets and cross-bows were ferried over on six rafts, and thirty horsemen got over by swimming their horses.  The Indians then fled, and the bridge was constructed in the same manner as formerly described, over which all the rest of the army passed.  About two leagues after crossing the river, the army came to some corn-fields with scattered houses, and were galled for some time by the Indians, who lurked among the standing maize, whence they discharged their arrows at the Spaniards:  But they were soon put to flight and several of them speared by the cavalry.  On arriving at Osachile they found the town abandoned, and the cacique of that place could never be persuaded to make his appearance.  Some Indians were made prisoners on this march, who were more tractable than any they had hitherto met with, and undertook to act as guides.  It was now necessary for the Spaniards to consider of a proper place in which to pass the winter, and as there had been much talk about the province or district of Apalache, as producing gold, the army only halted two days at Osachile, and recommenced their march in the direction of Apalache.  After marching twelve leagues through a desert wilderness, they came to a swamp half a league over, where the pass was defended by a considerable number of Indians.  An engagement ensued in which several were killed on both sides, and the Spaniards were foiled for that day.  But on the next, after a bloody encounter, the Spaniards drove the Indians from the swamp and got possession of the pass, all of which was fordable except about forty paces in the middle, over which there was a bridge of trees made fast together.