Someone might be taken hostage.

A horse might frighten people who had never seen one.

A metal object might become a curiosity.

A disease might spread without anyone understanding why.

Information might travel to another village before the Spanish army arrived there.

Stories about the strangers could move faster than the army itself.

By the time de Soto reached a new community, people might already know something about the outsiders.

They might know that the strangers wanted food.