CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
Operation Auca Begins
On the evening of the second day of October, 1955, Nate Saint fed some yellow tissue into his old typewriter and began:
"This will be an attempt to note developments that have led to the recent decision to launch efforts toward contacting the Auca tribe. These notes, of course, will record only personal points of view of the situation and will not touch past efforts of other missionaries.
"Last night Ed McCully, Jim Elliot, Johnny Keenan, and I were on the living room floor on elbows and knees poring over a map of the eastern jungles of Ecuador. We had just decided that it was the Lord's time to try to contact the savage Auca tribe located somewhere east of Ed's Quichua Indian mission station at Arajuno.
"Later, in the kitchen over a midnight cup of cocoa, we decided that our efforts should be carried forward as secretly as practicable so as to avoid arousing other non-missionary groups to competitive efforts. Their efforts would undoubtedly employ a heavily-armed invasion party going in overland. This we fear might set back for decades the missionary effort among these stone-age people.
"This afternoon, in meditation on the situation, it seemed to me a shame that the secrecy required might deny our prayer-supporting colleagues at home the blessing of a fresh running account, reported at first-hand, of our efforts and of the Lord's good hand upon them. Therefore I have taken it upon myself to set down the status quo and hope to add to it as we progress in the days ahead.
"A number of sporadic efforts have been made to change the status of these killers of the forests. Armed attacks and counterattacks on the part of whites only thinned out the tribe and fanned the furor of hatred already present. Fear of firearms did not diminish the Aucas' desire for revenge even though it had to be carried out from ambush with hardwood lances.
"The story of the exploration attempted by Rolf Blomberg, a Swedish explorer, and guided by a missionary in 1947, has been written in detail. The party was approaching the Aucas' location on balsa rafts when they were ambushed at a point where the current pushed the rafts close to the riverbank. An Indian porter in the party opened fire immediately and then dove into the river, following the missionary who was swimming underwater. This experience makes us wary of combining our efforts with those who have no love or special regard for these people."
When Ed McCully moved his family to Arajuno he asked Nate for an aerial survey of the Auca territory, and together they looked up and down the Nushino River valley, where the Aucas were known to have been some seven years before. They found nothing more than had Pete and Jim in their survey two years earlier-only the vast ocean of dark green treetops that stretches off into a smudgy horizon. The effect of an ocean is heightened by the choppy, wavelike hills that break up the terrain. The coffee-with-cream-colored rivers snaking through the trees serve as a reminder that it is landscape, not seascape. Only the trained eye, however, would be able to spot human habitation in this wilderness-perhaps a ragged scarf of smoke rising above the green, or the infinitesimal spot which indicates an Indian chacra.
Nate's diary continues: "The actual search did not get under way until the morning of September 19, when I was letting down for Arajuno on the regular weekly vegetable-run. It was around 8:30 A.M., as I recall, and the atmosphere was unusually clear. Visibility was about seventy-five miles and all the little river valleys, which are usually camouflaged by the more common light-haze foliage combinations, were clearly discernible in the distance.
When I climbed out of the plane and greeted Ed, I asked him how he'd like to go looking for his 'neighbors.' He was all for it, so we set to work raiding Marilou's larder for canned goods and scrounged around for other special emergency equipment and took off about half an hour later.
"We followed the Nushino east, but flying the north side this time. We were able to scan a six- or eight-mile sweth. About fifty miles east of Ed's place, out over the middle of nowhere, we turned due north toward Coca on the Rio Napo. About five minutes later we spied some spots that looked as if they might have been planted manioc patches years ago. It's hard to be sure from a bird's point of view, even after you've been studying the woods for some time. We circled and then went on north until the Napo was getting close, without seeing anything more. The left turn toward home was inevitable. We didn't have gas enough to press on much farther and we had covered what we had outlined for this particular trip. However, it was hard to give up. It takes so long to get that far out, and it is so difficult to find such ideal weather. I'd been eying a blemish, barely discernible in the jungle, maybe five miles away. Ed couldn't make it out, but we decided to fly that way for just a couple of minutes, and if we didn't turn up something more concrete we'd beat it for home.
"The blemish grew into a well-defined pockmark, and then into a good-sized clearing covered with well-cleaned manioc. This was it. We'd been cruising very slowly and our fuel consumption was getting low, but we could still hang around for fifteen minutes without cutting into the reserve. So we hung around. All told, we must have seen about fifteen clearings and a few houses. It was an exciting old time ... a time we'd waited for.
"We never did let down fora close look. In the first place, we had to watch fuel consumption; in the second, we didn't want anyone to get frightened on our first visit. We'd be back again with more thoughts on the best manner to approach these people.
"On the way back Ed observed that he thought there must be other clearings closer to his place. He felt it would be a long hike for Aucas from this settlement to show up at his place or in its environs. I didn't think so. To me it seemed logical that they should all be way out there in the wilderness since there had been a raid at their old location on the Nushino. We decided to keep thinking about the whole thing and to compare notes later. We also decided to keep the 'find' in the family until we were sure it was okay to spill it.
"The news was exciting to Marj and to Ruth and Johnny Keenan. As we reflected, it seemed providential that we had investigated that tiny spot that turned into the first Auca clearing we had ever laid eyes on.
"A couple of weeks later (September 29) I was to take Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming over to Villano where they were to spend several days preaching among a group of Quichuas who had never heard the Gospel. Our route was to be via Arajuno, so we decided that since we'd be flying over what was Auca territory, and since it would take two trips to move in the men and their equipment and two Indian guides-which would mean that I would cross the area four timeswe would keep our eyes open and fly slightly different routes each time.
"On the first trip over with Jim and the equipment we didn't see a sign of life. The return trip also yielded nothing. Then Pete and the two guides and I started out. Having decided to go far enough east to see an area that hadn't been covered by the previous two crossings, we zigzagged slowly, favoring the more hospitable-looking jungle valleys.
"About fifteen minutes from Arajuno we spotted some clearings. Pete and I spoke only in English, but there was no hiding our excitement. Our Indian guides spotted the clearings also. They were sharpies and immediately said 'Aucas.' It was their first time up in a plane, yet they knew just where they were and could name the rivers. We flew down a little river and spotted a half-dozen big houses with smaller ones around them. That was it. There they were as plain as the nose on your face and only fifteen minutes from Ed's place at Arajuno by plane.
"As we approached Villano we talked over the problem of keeping the guides quiet. We decided that we would have to impress on them the danger to them personally if word of the location of the Aucas got around and if, as a result, there were attacks on the Aucas by the Quichuas or others, followed by Auca reprisal raids.
"I landed from the inhabited end of the Villano strip, coming in fast so as to appear to have to use most of the strip. That took us away from the waiting crowd and gave Pete time to admonish the guides as per our agreement. They agreed to keep the secret ... (probably as secret as a full-sized toy elephant under a Christmas tree).
"Everyone who was in on our plan was again thrilled by the news. To some of us the most significant thing was not the information gained but the fact that after so much fruitless searching we had located the first group of Aucas and then in a couple of weeks had stumbled over the other group. It seemed to mean that now was the Lord's time to do something about them. Again we agreed to pray about the matter and compare notes further, after the whole episode had a chance to sink in.
"Several days later when Johnny Keenan was moving Jim and Pete and their guides from Villano back to Arajuno, he hit bad weather and finally had to come on back to Shell Mera to land and spend the night. That was the night that the map was on the livingroom floor surrounded by four men who were now laboring under the conviction that the Lord was leading us to do something about the Aucas.
"That night and into the wee hours of the morning we circumnavigated the problem a dozen different times. It is most fascinating to try to imagine how those people would respond to different approaches."
One of the problems that the missionaries grappled with that night was that of language. The need to convince the Aucas that here were friendly white men, could best be effected by communicating with them in their own language. This was of the essence. As the men talked over this problem, Jim Elliot came up with the answer. He remembered having seen Dayuma on Senor Carlos Sevilla's hacienda, which lay only four hours' walk from Shandia. He offered to go and talk to her to pick up phrases that could be useful in case contact were made.
A few days later, Jim trekked over. He found Dayuma cooperative, although he was very careful not to divulge to her the reason for his desire to be taught some simple Auca phrases. Among Quichuas gossip spreads as quickly as anywhere else. Fortunately, Dayuma- accustomed to the strange ways of strange people-assumed he was only casually interested in learning the language.
"Biti miti punimupa, " which means "I like you; I want to be your friend," Jim wrote carefully in his notebook. This was followed by "Biti winki pungi amupa "-"l want to approach you," or, more colloquially, "Let's get together."
"How do you say, 'What is your name?"' Jim asked in Quichua.
"Awum irimi, " Dayuma answered in Auca.
And so Jim built a practical vocabulary list.
Thus, one of the obstacles that lay in the path of the missionaries was partly overcome. A presentation of gifts seemed the obvious next step. Perhaps a carefully-planned, regular program of gift-drops, made over a period of time, would show the Indians that the intentions of these white men were friendly, and the repetition would gradually convince them.