What happens when a primitive society is overrun by a more advanced one? The travels of Hernando de Soto through Georgia and the Southeast are a good illustration of the havoc created especially when a quest for gold is mixed in. Hernando de Soto and his men, already rich from fighting with the Incas in South America, arrived in La Florida searching for gold. Jerald Milanich, an archaeologist at the University of Florida explains the conquistadors’ success.