For Vancouver’s Lynda Adams-Chau, the last memory of her son, American missionary John Allen Chau, is a journal he left behind in which he documented his riveting journey to Andaman’s North Sentinel Island before he was brutally executed and buried by the Sentinelese tribe on November 17.
Chau’s journal reveals how he traversed a treacherous journey in a fishing boat to the area where the isolated tribe lives in huts, the Washington Post reported. The missionary wrote about how the men, who have yellow paste on their faces, reacted angrily as he attempted to speak their language and “sing worship songs” to them.
He wrote that he introduced himself to the tribe saying, “I love you and Jesus loves you”. However, this provoked the group which shot at him with an arrow and “pierced his waterproof Bible”.
In his last note to his family on November 16, shortly before he left the boat to meet the tribe on the island, Chau wrote that “you guys might think I’m crazy in all this but I think it’s worthwhile to declare Jesus to these people”. As a side note, he added: “God, I don’t want to die.”
Lynda, however, believes her son is still alive. “My prayers”, she says when asked about the reason behind her faith.
Chau had reportedly visited the isolated islands five times, strongly desiring to meet members of the tribe. When police received information from his mother about her missing son, they arrested seven fishermen for their involvement in the crime.
The Andamans are also home to the 400-strong Jarawa tribe who activists say are at threat from outsiders, who often bribe local authorities to spend a day out with them. But tribes such as the Sentinelese shun all contact with the outside world and are known to be hostile to any encroachers. The North Sentinel island is out of bounds even to the Indian navy in a bid to protect its reclusive inhabitants who number only about 150.
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