In five days march he reached Talisse, a town fortified with entrenchments of timber and earth, on the frontiers of the territories of the cacique of Tascaluza, who was in enmity with the cacique of Coza, who went so far with the Spaniards on purpose to intimidate Tascaluza. At this place Soto was received by a son of Tascaluza, only eighteen years of age, and so tall that none of the Spaniards reached higher than his breast. This young man offered his fathers compliments of friendship to the Spaniards, and conducted Soto to Tascaluza, who received him sitting after their manner on a kind of chair, with a great number of men standing round him; and though the different commanders came up successively to salute him, no one stirred till Soto came forwards, when the cacique stood up and advanced twenty paces to meet him. Tascaluza was like a giant, much taller than his son, well-shaped, and of a good aspect. The Spaniards were well received, abundantly supplied, and commodiously quartered. They set out again on their march on the third day; and as the cacique Tascaluza chose to accompany them, one of the baggage horses belonging to Soto was selected for him to ride upon. When mounted, his feet reached within, a span of the ground. He was not fat, as his waist was hardly a yard in compass, and he did not seem to exceed forty years of age. In the course of this days march, after coming to a fortified town, the Spaniards had to cross the river, which they did with considerable difficulty, being badly supplied with rafts or floats. On taking up their quarters for the night, two Spaniards were amissing; and when the Indians were asked about them, they answered in a haughty manner, they were not given to our keeping, so that it was strongly suspected they were murdered. Upon this cause of jealousy, and being likewise privately informed that the cacique had assembled a great number of men at a place called Mavila, under pretence of serving the Spaniards, Soto sent three confidential officers to view that place, which was about a league and a half from quarters. They reported that they had seen no person by the way, but that Mavila was a much better fortified place than, any they had hitherto seen in Florida.

As the Spaniards were bound for Mavila, and under circumstances very considerable suspicion as to the good intentions of Tascaluza and his subjects, they marched with the utmost circumspection. Soto led the van in person, consisting of an hundred horse and an hundred and fifty foot. He was accompanied by Tascaluza, and as he marched with diligence, he arrived at Mavila at eight in the morning, the main body not coming up for a considerable time after. The town of Mavila was seated in a plain, enclosed by a double row of piles with timbers laid athwart, and the interstices rammed full of straw and earth, so that it looked like a wall smoothed by a masons trowel. At every eighty paces distance, there was a tower or platform where eight men could stand to fight, having many loop holes. It likewise had two gates. Though it only consisted of eighty houses, these were so large that each could have contained a thousand men. In the middle of the town was a large square or market-place, into which when Soto and the cacique were come and had dismounted, Tascaluza, pointed out to the interpreter a house in which the general might take up his quarters and another for his kitchen, saying that huts and barracks were provided for the rest of the Spaniards on the outside of the town. To this Soto made answer, that, when the major-general came up, he would distribute the troops to proper quarters.

Tascaluza now retired into a house where all his chiefs were assembled, on purpose to consult how best to kill all the Spaniards, which he had been long plotting to accomplish. It was proposed in this council to attack them in their present divided state, before the rest of the Spaniards could get forwards to the town; but another opinion prevailed, which was to allow them all to assemble, as the Indian chiefs had a large force concealed in the houses of the town, and thought themselves perfectly able to encounter with the Spaniards. When the meat was dressed at the quarters of Soto, Juan Ortiz the interpreter was sent with a message to Tascaluza desiring his presence; but he was refused admission to deliver his message, and on pressing to get in, an Indian came to the door exclaiming angrily, "What would these unmannerly vagabonds have with my lord? Down with the villains, there is no enduring their insolence!" He immediately bent his bow, and levelled at some Spaniards who were in the street; but Baltasar de Gallegos, who happened to be close by, gave him a cut on the shoulder which cleft him to the middle. An Indian youth now let fly six or seven arrows at Gallegos, which did him no harm as he was in armour, after which the Indian gave him three or four strokes on the helmet with his bow, but Gallegos killed him with two thrusts of his sword. The moment these Indians were slain an alarm was given, and above seven thousand warriors, who had been concealed in the large houses of the town, rushed out into the streets and drove all the Spaniards out of the town.

The Spaniards who managed best on this alarm, ran immediately to mount their horses, which had been left tied on the outside of the town; while others cut the halters or reins that the Indians might not shoot them. Others remained tied, and were slain by the Indians. Such of the Spaniards as had been able to mount their horses, with others who now arrived, charged the Indians who were engaged with the infantry, making room for them to draw up in regular order. Having re-established their ranks, a troop of horse and a company of foot made so furious a charge on the Indians that they drove them into the town, and attempted to get in at the gate after them; but they were received by such a volley of arrows and stones as compelled them to retire two hundred paces, yet without turning their backs, in which consisted their safety. As the Indians followed them, they made a fresh charge, and drove the Indians back to the town, yet dared not to venture too near the wall; and the fight continued in this manner for some time, alternately gaining and losing ground, several of the Spaniards being killed and wounded. Finding they had the worst of it in the open field, the Indians kept close behind the walls of the town. On this Soto alighted from his horse, causing others to do the same, and advanced up to the gate at the head of a party armed with targets, under cover of which two hundred men with axes hewed down the gate and rushed in, not without much hazard and some loss. Others of the Spaniards contrived to mount the wall, helping each other, and hastened to succour those who had gained the gate. Seeing the Spaniards had forced their way into the town, which they deemed impregnable, the Indians fought desperately in the streets, and from the roofs of the houses, for which reason these were set on fire by the Spaniards. After entering the town, Soto remounted his horse, and charged a body of Indians in the market-place, killing many with his spear; but, raising himself in the stirrup to make a home thrust, an arrow penetrated through his armour and wounded him in the hip, so that he could not regain his seat: yet, not to discourage his men, he continued to fight during the remainder of the action, though obliged to stand the whole time in the stirrups. Another arrow pierced quite through the spear of Nunno de Tovar, near his hand, but did not break the shaft of the lance, which continued to serve after the arrow was cut off.

The fire which had been put to the houses burned fiercely, as the houses were all of wood and covered with thatch, by which great numbers of the Indians perished. About four in the afternoon, being sensible of their own weakness and that they were likely to be worsted, the Indian women began to join in the battle, armed with the spears, swords, and partizans which the Spaniards had lost, some even with bows and arrows, which they managed as dexterously as their husbands, and some armed only with stones exposed themselves courageously in the heat of the action. The foremost of the Spanish main body, which had fallen greatly behind the van little thinking of what was to happen, on hearing the noise of trumpets, drums, and shouts, gave the alarm to the rest, and hastening forwards came up about the close of the engagement. At this time many of the Indians got over the wall into the fields, and endeavoured to make head against the newly arrived Spaniards, but were soon slain. On the arrival of the Spanish main body, about twelve fresh horsemen made a furious charge on a large body of Indian men and women who still continued the battle in the market-place, and soon routed them with great slaughter. This ended the fight about sunset, after it had lasted nine hours, being on St Lukes day in the year 1541166.