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Show The First Intruders: Explorers, Traders, and Slavers 27 Nuwuvi evacuated the camp, leaving only three men and two women, who said to Joaquin, the Ute, "Little Brother, you are of the same race as ourselves. Do not permit these people with whom you come to kill us." 24 The Spanish calmed their fears somewhat, and the Nuwuvi gave them two roasted hares, pine nuts and showed them the watering place for animals. The area may have been a permanent Nuwuvi settlement, for Escalante noted that there were pinon and juniper trees, a small permanent stream and several pools of rain water nearby. That night at the Nuwuvi village an interesting event occurred. Some of the men, among them Don Bernardo Miera, the expedition's map-maker, went to "one of the huts to chat with the Indians." Miera was ill and "an old Indian," wrote Escalante, "either because our men ordered it or because he wanted to, set about doctoring him with songs and ceremonies which, if not openly idolatrous were at least entirely superstitious. All of our people permitted them willingly, and among them the sick man." 25 Although Escalante was outraged, the participants were either curious about Nuwuvi medicine and religion or hoped that the Nuwuvi doctor could cure Miera. Nuwuvi doctors were capable of working cures, and perhaps the Spaniards knew of their capabilities. Perhaps the old Nuwuvi man was "beating Escalante and Dominguez to the stick" and seeking converts to the Nuwuvi religion. On the next day, the expedition was visited by many Nuwuvi from throughout the surrounding area.26 Again trading occurred. The following day twenty-six Nuwuvi assembled. Escalante took advantage of this opportunity and preached to the assemblage.27 Assuring the Nuwuvi that missionaries would return to them, the Escalante-Dominguez party finally left. After crossing the Colorado River with much difficulty, Escalante summed up his observations of the people whom he had met. He stated that in an area of approximately sixty by forty Spanish leagues (each league equalling about three miles), "there live a large number of people, all of pleasing appearance, very friendly, and extremely timid." 28 After fording the Colorado, Escalante met some more of the Nuwuvi. On the rim of the canyon of Navajo Creek, the Spaniards found some Nuwuvi camps. These Nuwuvi, despite Spanish efforts to talk with them, refused to come near. Escalante felt that the Nuwuvi |