05 August 2023 , 14:42
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An ambitious Christian missionary met an untimely end when he was slaughtered by a uncontacted tribe after trying to convert them to his religion.
John Allen Chau, 27, visited an island in the Indian Ocean inhabited by people who are part of an endangered tribe. People are banned from even approaching North Sentinel Island to protect the people who live there and their way of life.
But that didn't stop John, who made the dangerous journey to try and convert the people who lived there to Christianity. He'd grown up in a Christian home in Vancouver, Washington, and had a passion for hiking, camping and travelling.
John regularly documented his experiences online, and after returning from a trip to Mexico in high school he gave a homily where he said Christians "need to know how to defend our faith".
"When we go out in our world, there are people that'll just come and oppose us, and they'll have questions, and they'll have questions, and they'll have arguments..." he said. "We can't just, like, go out there unprepared. We need to know what we believe and why we believe it."
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The Sentinelese tribe have no contact with the outside world and outsiders are banned to protect them and their way of lifeJohn learned about the highly isolated Sentinelese people in high school. The hunter-gatherers live on North Sentinel Island and are considered one of the Earth's last uncontacted peoples.
In November 2018, John set out on his mission to the island, which almost no outsiders had stepped foot on before. The residents of North Sentinel have a reputation for killing anyone who lands on their tiny island, and John seemed to be aware that what he was doing with dangerous.
He wrote to his parents, saying he wanted to "declare Jesus" to the island's inhabitants and that they should "not be angry at them or at God if [he got] killed."
John paid a boat of fishermen 25,000 rupees (£240) to smuggle him close to the island. He ended up visiting the island multiple times over the course of several days.
"I hollered: 'My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you'," he wrote. "I regret I began to panic slightly as I saw them string arrows in their bows.
"I picked up the fish and threw it towards them. They kept coming. I paddled like I never have in my life back to the boat."
His first attempt saw a fishing boat taking him around 500-700m from shore, with fishermen warning John not to go any further. But, he canoed toward shore with a waterproof Bible and attempted to communicate with the islanders as he approached and offer gifts. But he retreated after facing hostile responses.
John loved hiking, adventuring and exploring (Instagram)
John had paid a group of fishermen to smuggle him close to the island (Facebook)On another visit, John recorded in his diary that the islanders reacted to him with a mixture of amusement, bewilderment and hostility. He attempted to sing worship songs to them and spoke to them in Xhosa - a language spoken in Southern Africa.
According to John's last letter, when he tried to hand over fish and gifts, a boy shot a metal-headed arrow that pierced the Bible he was holding in front of his chest, so he retreated once more. On his final visit on November 17, he told the fishermen to leave him.
Shortly after making land one one of his visits, it's believed John was hit and killed by arrows. In a statement, police said: "The fishermen saw a dead person being buried at the shore which from the silhouette of the body, clothing and circumstances appeared to be the body of John Allen Chau."
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The fishermen later accompanied police back to the point on the island where they believed John had been buried. Police stationed their boat around 400m offshore, and using binoculars saw tribesmen on the beach armed with bows and arrows.
Regional police chief Dependra Pathak said: "They stared at us and we were looking at them."
Their boat then withdrew. Rights group Survival International said any attempt to recover John's body was "incredibly dangerous" for both the Sentinelese tribe and officials. John's family followed his wishes and did not blame the Sentinelese for his death.
In a statement at the time they said: "We recently learned from an unconfirmed report that John Allen Chau was reported killed in India while reaching out to members of the Sentinelese Tribe in the Andaman Islands.
"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."