An American missionary was killed by an isolated tribe on a remote Indian island after he tried introducing them to Christianity.
The North Sentinel Island, part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is home to a 30,000-year-old tribe that is known to aggressively resist outsiders, according to The Guardian. It is also off-limits to outsiders.
The 26-year-old John Allen Chau illegally paid fishermen to take him to the isolated island, hoping to convert them to Christianity, Indian officials said.
Authorities believed he first canoed to the shore on Nov. 16, deliberately disregarding an established perimeter around the island.
According to journal entries left with the fishermen and shared on the Washington Post, Chau wrote: “I hollered, ‘My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you.'”
One of the tribespeople fired an arrow at him that lodged into his waterproof Bible.
The next day as he prepared to make another approach, Chau wrote a letter to his parents.
“You guys might think I’m crazy in all this, but I think it’s worth it to declare Jesus to these people. God, I don’t want to die,” he wrote.
He gave the letter and his journal to the fishermen and canoed off.
He never returned.
The next morning, “the fishermen saw a dead person being buried on the shore which from the silhouette of the body, clothing, and circumstances appeared to be the body of John Allen Chau,” according to a police statement.
On social media, Chau’s family wrote: “He loved God, life, helping those in need, and had nothing but love for the Sentinelese people. We forgive those reportedly responsible for his death.”
All the family can now do is wait for when, or if, their son’s body will be returned to them.