Here's how quickly pigs breed. When Hernando de Soto arrived in Florida in 1539, he brought 13 pigs. By the time of his death, there were 700. That was three years later. The abundance of meat and plentiful land for agriculture and grazing meant that Europeans in the Americas very rarely experienced famine, and despite what you may have learned about religious and political freedom, the main reason Europeans came to America was to eat. Large European animals also changed the nature of work in the Americas. Before Europeans, the largest beast of burden was the llama, and at best it could carry like a hundred pounds.