This is an excerpt from a journal kept by one of the men in de Soto’s party. Here, the explorer discusses his impressions of the Savannah River region. The country was delightful and fertile, having good interval lands upon the streams; the forest was open, with abundance of walnut and mulberry trees. . . .

To all it appeared well to make a settlement there . . . [It] is a good country, and one fit in which to raise supplies; but Soto, as it was his object to find another treasure like that of Atabalipa, lord of Peru, would not be content with good lands nor pearls, even though many of them were worth their weight in gold.

–"The Expedition of Hernando de Soto,"
1557

According to the excerpt, why was de Soto less interested in building a settlement in this place?

A: He wanted to keep searching for silver and gold in other places.
B: He thought the members of the expedition should focus on finding pearls.
C: He mostly was interested in finding forests in order to ship wood back to Spain.
D: He thought settlements should be built away from the rivers where American Indians lived.