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 POLICE STRUGGLE TO RECOVER BODY

Indian authorities were struggling yesterday to figure out how to recover the body of Mr Chau, reporting that not even officials travel to North Sentinel where outsiders are seen with suspicion and attacked.

“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,” he told AP.

Police are consulting anthropologists, tribal welfare experts and scholars to figure out a way to recover the body, he said.

The 26-year-old self-styled adventurer and Christian missionary often posted photographs of his worldwide travels online.

— With AP