De Soto and his army wanted one thing as they moved across the state: to find gold. When de Soto arrived in Georgia, the native tribes saw white men and horses for the first time. De Soto had only a small number of men to face thousands of American Indians, but his weapons were better. His army had guns and crossbows, and his soldiers rode horses. The Spanish also wore plated armor, which arrows could not pierce. What was one difference between the American Indians and the Spanish explorers? The Spanish explorers were less inclined to do battle than the American Indians were. There were fewer explorers than American Indians, but the Spanish had powerful weapons. There were many more Spanish explorers than there were American Indians. The American Indians had much better weapons than the small number of explorers did.