John Allen Chau was killed by arrows shot by protected tribesman living on a remote Indian island. Photo / Facebook
American missionary John Allen Chau had written that he didn't want to die, hours before a remote tribe on India's North Sentinel Island killed him in a hail of arrows.
Although the island, a sovereign area under Indian protection, is a no-go-zone, the American missionary had plans on making contact with the Sentinelese tribe according to his journals shared by his mother with The Washington Post.
"You guys might think I'm crazy in all this but I think it's worthwhile to declare Jesus to these people," he wrote in a last note to his family on November 16, shortly before he left the safety of the fishing boat to meet the tribesmen on the island. "God, I don't want to die."
In Instagram posts and journals, Mr Chau wrote that he found the remote Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal — where people live as their ancestors did thousands of years ago — an inspiring but frightening location, the publication reported.
"Why does this beautiful place have to have so much death here?" he wrote. "I hope this isn't one of my last notes but if it is 'to God be the Glory'."
Sources from within his missionary circle told AP that Mr Chau interacted with some of the tribesmen, who stand about 1.6m tall and wear yellow paste on their faces, on a handful of occasions.
He appears to have been tolerated until the tribe started losing patience. They survive by hunting, fishing and gathering plants.
When they fired an arrow at him, it struck a book Mr Chau was carrying, which an acquaintance said was a Bible, AP reported.
He attempted to speak their language and sing worship songs.
"I hollered, 'My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you,'," Mr Chau wrote, adding that a child shot at him with an arrow that missed and pierced his waterproof Bible.
Mr Chau, who was illegally ferried to the island by fishermen, returned the next day and exactly what happened next is unclear, but the fishermen have told police Mr Chau was set upon from the moment his feet touched the sand.
He was killed in a hail of arrows and buried in the sand.
"He was attacked by arrows but he continued walking," the source said.
"The fishermen saw the (tribesmen) tying a rope around his neck and dragging his body.
"They were scared and fled but returned next morning to find his body on the sea shore."
Several of the fishermen involved in helping Mr Chau travel to the island, as well as a friend who helped organise the boat trip, have been arrested — Mr Chau's family have since pleaded for their release, saying he acted "on his own free will".
Police official Deepak Yadav said "They were very well aware of the situation, but they still arranged for a boat and everything."
He described the move as "pushing (Mr Chau) in the mouth of death," according to the New York Post.
P.C Joshi, an anthropology professor at Delhi University who has studied the islands, said it was "a foolish adventure."
Prof Joshi noted that the visit not only risked Mr Chau's life, but also the lives of the tribe who have little resistance to many diseases.
"They are not immune to anything. A simple thing like flu can kill them," he said.
Indian authorities are struggling to figure out how to recover the body of an American who was killed after wading ashore on an island cut off from the modern world.
"It's a difficult proposition," said Dependera Pathak, director-general of police on India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where North Sentinel is located. "We have to see what is possible, taking utmost care of the sensitivity of the group and the legal requirements."
Police are consulting anthropologists, tribal welfare experts and scholars to figure out a way to recover the body, he said.
While visits to the island are heavily restricted, Chau paid fishermen last week to take him near North Sentinel, using a kayak to paddle to shore and bringing gifts including a football and fish.
It was "a foolish adventure," said P.C. Joshi, an anthropology professor at Delhi University who has studied the islands. "He invited that aggression."
Joshi noted that the visit not only risked Chau's life, but also the lives of islanders who have little resistance to many diseases.
"They are not immune to anything. A simple thing like flu can kill them," he said.
On his first day Chau interacted with some tribesmen - who survive by hunting, fishing and collecting wild plants - until they became angry and shot an arrow at him. The 26-year-old self-styled adventurer and Christian missionary then swam back to the fishermen's boat waiting at a safe distance.
That night, he wrote about his visit and left his notes with the fishermen. He returned to North Sentinel the next day, November 16.
What happened then isn't known, but on the morning of the following day, the fishermen watched from the boat as tribesmen dragged Chau's body along the beach and buried his remains.
Pathak said seven people have been arrested for helping Chau, including five fishermen, a friend of Chau's and a local tourist guide.
Chau was apparently shot and killed by arrows, but the cause of death can't be confirmed until his body is recovered, Pathak said.
He also said the police were examining whether Chau had tried earlier to visit the isolated island.
Pathak said Chau and his accomplices planned well for last week's visit by "camouflaging the visit as fishing."
Also, Chau appeared to be full of confidence as he wrote in his notes, "God sheltered him from coastguard and Navy," he said.
In an Instagram post, his family said it was mourning him as a "beloved son, brother, uncle and best friend to us." The family also said it forgave his killers and called for the release of those who assisted him in his quest to reach the island.
"He ventured out on his own free will and his local contacts need not be persecuted for his own actions," the family said.
Authorities say Chau arrived in the area on October 16 and stayed on another island while he prepared to travel to North Sentinel. It was not his first time in the region: he had visited the Andaman islands in 2015 and 2016.
With help from a friend, Chau hired fishermen for US$325 to take him there on a boat, Pathak said.
After the fishermen realised Chau had been killed, they left for Port Blair, the capital of the island chain, where they broke the news to Chau's friend, who in turn notified his family, Pathak said.
Police surveyed the island by air Tuesday, and a team of police and forest department officials used a coast guard boat to travel there Wednesday. Another trip was planned Thursday.
India has a hands-off approach to the island's people. Tribespeople killed two Indian fishermen in 2006 when their boat broke loose and drifted onto the shore, but Indian media reports say officials did not investigate or prosecute anyone in the deaths.
India recently changed some of its rules on visiting isolated regions in the Andamans.
While special permits are required, scholars say visits are now theoretically allowed in some parts of the Andamans where they used to be entirely forbidden, including North Sentinel. Chau had no permit, police said.
Chau had wanted ever since high school to go to North Sentinel to share Christianity with the indigenous people, said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Covenant Journey, a program that takes college students on tours of Israel to affirm their Christian faith. Chau went through that program in 2015.
"He didn't go there for just adventure. I have no question it was to bring the gospel of Jesus to them," Staver said.
Staver said Chau's last notes to his family on November 16 told them that they might think he was crazy but that he felt it was worth it and asked that they not be angry if he was killed.
Before attending Oral Roberts University, Chau had lived in southwestern Washington state and went to Vancouver Christian High School. Phone messages left with relatives were not immediately returned Wednesday.
- additional reporting by AP
An additional aircraft carrier and tanker planes are part of beefed-up military presence.