[Footnote 166:  The date of 1541 seems here erroneous, Soto having landed in 1539, and spent only one winter in the country, the transactions in this part of the text ought only to refer to the year 1540.—­E.]

During the night and next day, Soto ordered the best possible care to be taken of the wounded, some of whom died for want of proper necessaries, no bandages, lint, oil, or medicines being to be had, as all these things had been plundered along with the other baggage at the commencement of the battle by the Indians, and having been carried into the town were all there burnt along with the houses.  Forty-eight Spaniards were slain in this battle; thirteen others died shortly of their wounds, and twenty-two some time afterwards, so that the entire loss was eighty-three men, besides forty-five horses, which were much missed, as the cavalry constituted the main strength of the army.  It was reckoned that eleven thousand Indians perished, four thousand of whom were found dead without the town, and young Tascaluza among them.  The dead bodies within the town were computed at three thousand, as the streets were all full of them; and it was believed that upwards of four thousand were consumed by fire in the houses, for above a thousand perished in one house, as the fire began at the door and they were all stifled.  When the Spaniards afterwards scoured the country round, many were found to have died of their wounds in various parts, and some of them four leagues from the town.  The body of the cacique Tascaluza could not be found, whence it was concluded that he had perished in the flames, a victim to his eager desire to destroy the Spaniards, which he had anxiously premeditated from the first notice he had received of their arrival in the neighbourhood of his territories.  It was reported by some women who were made prisoners, that on the Indians of Talisse complaining of having been ordered by their cacique to carry the baggage of the Spaniards, Tascaluza had exhorted them to have a little patience, as he would soon deliver up these strangers to them as slaves.  These women said that they were strangers who had accompanied their husbands at the invitation of Tascaluza, who had promised to give them scarlet and silk dresses, and fine jewels to wear at their dances, and to divide the Spaniards and their horses among them.  They said likewise that all the women of the surrounding country, married and single, had collected on this occasion; as it had been given out that an extraordinary festival was to be held in honour of the Sun, after the destruction of the Spaniards.  Besides the destruction of their baggage on this occasion, the Spaniards lost all the wine, chalices, and holy vestments for celebrating the mass, so that in future they could only have ordinary prayers and sermons, without any consecration or communion, till after their return among Christians.