Chau spent years planning to travel illegally to the remote North Sentinel Island on a mission to convert its residents to Christianity. Though he knew the islanders had long violently resisted outsiders, he conducted a covert mission to the protected island this month.
Chau arrived in the Andamans on Oct. 16 and paid fishermen to take him by boat at night to the island on Nov. 14, evading the lights of patrols on the way. When the sun broke, Chau drove near the tribe. The women began “looing and chattering,” and he was faced by men armed with bows and arrows.
The second day, he kayaked to the island and tried to offer the tribe small gifts – fish, scissors, cord and safety pins. A man in white with a crown, possibly made of flowers, shouted at him. He responded by singing “worship songs and hymns,” and the tribe fell silent. A juvenile fired an arrow at him, piercing his waterproof Bible. By the third day, he became convinced he was going to die.
“Watching the sunset and it’s beautiful – crying a bit . . . wondering if it will be the last sunset I see,” he wrote. He asked the fishermen to drop him on the beach. They returned the next day and saw the tribesmen dragging Chau’s body.