CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
A Line from Plane to Ground
The men decided to begin the gift-drops to the savage Aucas at the earliest possible moment, employing the spiraling-line technique that Nate Saint had pioneered in Atshuara country. There, the accuracy of delivery had been of paramount importance. In the new venture, the technique would have the additional value of making it clear to the Aucas that the visitors in the plane had the power to give or retain the gift right up until the moment of delivery. From captive Aucas it had been learned that the Indians thought that the gifts from the Shell plane fell out of its "stomach" as a result of its being wounded or scared by the lances they had thrown.
Nate typed out his continuing record of the start of Operation Auca:
"That night on the living-room floor it was decided that we would make our aerial visits regularly, leaving something different each week in order to work on their curiosity. We calculated that under the circumstances, sooner or later the hostile spirit would melt.
"The following day Johnny flew Jim and Ed back to Arajuno. At Shell Mera I began tests with the line to see what kind of simple, dependable mechanism we could use to release our gifts when they touched the ground. Johnny and I flew together on most of the tests and Marj and Ruth hooked on the test weights and watched their release on the runway. We marked off a target on the runway and tried to hit it.
"Finally we were ready fora dress rehearsal. The test went off fine, except that when we flew over the strip to drop the line, it fouled the strut and we had to tie a knife on a stick so that we could try to cut it loose. There was no danger except that it could have come loose by itself while we were not over the field. And that is just what happened. I saw the line drape itself in some tall trees just beyond the end of the runway. However, by the time we landed and got in there to hunt for it, it was too dark, so that it had to remain there till morning.
"That night I was so keyed up I couldn't sleep much. On the other hand, I realized that the whole thing was in the Lord's hands. I had no way of knowing how long it would take the next morning to get the line out of the trees, but I told Marj that if I could be ready to take off by 9 A.M. we would go through with it; if not, we'd cancel until the following day.
"Next morning I rigged a 'fishing line' with a weight that I could toss over the lost line high in the trees. With that and a lot of trudging around through brush I finally got all the line and by 9 A.M. we were ready for take-off.
"October 6, 1955. The first gift was a small aluminum kettle with a lid. Inside we put about twenty brightly colored buttons-obviously not for their nonexistent clothes! But buttons do make good ornaments. Also we included a little sack with a few pounds of rock salt. We understand that they do not have any salt of their own. If only they could discover what the stuff was good for we felt sure we'd win friends. To these things we attached some fifteen brightly colored ribbon streamers about a yard long. All was ready.
"Out at Arajuno all was readiness and happy anticipation. I was very anxious lest by some fault of mine we might miss on this first attempt.
"We loaded in our emergency equipment, rigged our special gear, made a 'dry-run' test of getting the rig overboard, and took off for points east. We could hardly believe that we were to have the privilege of making the initial effort. Fifteen minutes' flying brought us over the first clearings. It was Ed's first look at his 'neighbors,' and he was plenty keyed up about it.
"We decided to try to find the downstream edge of their domain so that if we had a forced landing we could travel downstream away from their territory. About fifteen minutes more of looking around assured us that we were over the house that interested us.
"We were about 3,000 feet above the ground, and could not see anyone below; yet every indication showed that the house was occupied. The large house was thatched, with round ends, Jivaro style, and around it were several smaller squarish houses with thatched roofs, square on the ends. Well-beaten paths linked the smaller houses to the large central one. The main house was about forty yards from the edge of the stream and had a nice playa [sandbar] in front of it, perhaps seventy-five yards long and twenty-five yards wide at the widest place. A path showed that they used the playa frequently. It would be our target.
"We slowed the plane to fifty-five miles per hour and held the gifts over the side-the door having been removed at Arajuno-and hooked up the automatic-release mechanism. Slowly we lowered the gift packet until it was well clear of the plane. Then we allowed the airspeed to come up to sixty-five and began the heart-racking job of reeling out the line. I say heart-racking because if there is a bad knot anywhere in the bundle of cord, the whole effort is lost for that time. But all went well and we began circling at about sixty-five miles per hour.
"Since our altimeter reads only the altitude above sea level, we had no way of knowing how high we were above the ground. No sign of life below. We continued circling until the gift was drifting in a small, lazy circle below us, ribbons fluttering nicely. If no one was watching, it made it more important that we put the gift in an obvious place. The gift still seemed pretty high, so we started spiraling down, noting a considerable wind drift from the north, necessitating correction every time around in order to keep us over the target.
"Finally the gift appeared to be pretty close to the trees below. Time for the attempt. The wind was making it difficult and the hills on either side of the stream were covered with tall trees. A couple of times it seemed that we snatched our charge upward just in the nick of time to keep it out of trees bordering the sandbar. Once I believe the ribbons dragged across a tree and hung up momentarily. At any rate, that gave us our working elevation. We made about six attempts at this elevation, gradually drifting the prize against the wind until it was over the bar. Then we rolled the turn steeper and held our breath while it lowered toward the earth. It wouldn't be ideal for it to hit the water, and it was heading close ... close ... closer ... plunk! It hit about two or three feet from the water, directly in line with the path to the house. They couldn't miss it, since they probably got their water for cooking right at that spot.
"Now another problem. I thought I saw our gift move just a little as we began a slow climb, still circling. That raised the question as to whether it was released or dragging on the line. But finally we were sure the line was free ... and there was our messenger of good will, love, and faith, 2,000 feet below on the sandbar. In a sense we had delivered the first Gospel-message-by-sign-language to a people who were a quarter of a mile away vertically, fifty miles horizontally, and continents and wide seas away psychologically.
"How much do these people know? What do they think of what little they have seen of the outside world? We know they used to watch airplanes of the Shell Oil Company land and take off at Arajuno, for the Shell workers saw the spots where they hid in the bush to watch these monstrous messengers of another world.
"The trip back to Arajuno was short and happy. Back home again everybody who was in on the secret wanted to know if we had seen any Aucas. They were a little skeptical about anyone's finding our gift when we confessed we hadn't seen a soul. Nevertheless, a start had been made.
"Friday, October 14, 1955. 1 haven't brought the narrative up to the moment but rather than let the hottest stuff cool off while I catch up, I'm going to go ahead with what just happened today.
"This morning the weather was good, so we took off around 8 A.M. On the way out we could see some early-morning fog still lingering in the river valleys to the east so we were in no great hurry. We landed at Arajuno and began to prepare for the 'drop,' which was to be a new machete. We understand that these people have killed for machetes. That is, they have killed people working in the fields in order to steal their machetes or axes. It is easy to imagine the importance of such items among a stone-age people. We wrapped the blade in canvas so that no one would get cut and then tied on a number of colored ribbon streamers. After rigging the automatic touchrelease gadget, we climbed in the plane for a dress rehearsal. Going over all our plans and precautions again, it seemed that we were ready, so we had a word of prayer for the success of the trip and took off.
"It is always a bit of a strain on me to reel out the line in the air. But I slowed the plane down and we carefully lowered our second 'messenger of good will' over the side. By the time the line was all out we were almost at our destination. We used a little less line this time than last.
"Our plan was to check the sand bar where we left the gift last week. There were some low clouds but we found the house and the sandbar. The gift was gone. The binoculars removed any doubt. Either they had 'accepted' it or a flood had taken it away. We saw no one, but it was evident that the site was well occupied. The plan was to fly upstream to the next house this time and leave the gift there. We figured that if we specialized on one house, the others might get jealous or become suspicious that the occupant of that house was in league with us, or was in some way a traitor to their cause. When we got to the target house, we found it directly under a cloud so we inferred that the Lord would have us go on to the next.
"As we approached the house we had decided on, we spotted three or four canoes pulled up to the streambank in front of the house. That was interesting because one report has it they don't have canoes ... but there they were. That meant, too, that somebody must be around nearby.
"As we started to circle about 2,500 feet above the house it became apparent that we were going to be inside the cloud about ten percent of the time, but all other conditions seemed so favorable that we decided to go ahead. The high-riding machete was behaving nicely. Ed was glued to the binoculars. All of a sudden he let out a yell and all but crawled out the open door to get a better look. We were seeing our first Auca! He was running around but not hiding. Pretty soon there were three of them out in front of their big leaf-covered house. Now we felt sure that they had received our gift of last week and that the idea had caught on in a hurry. If it was half the sport for them that it was for us, their excitement was understandable.
"After about four circles we had compensated for the wind, et cetera, and started letting the gift down. I was no longer worried about their getting it because we felt sure they were already watching the dangling prize. We let on down. At first it looked as if it would hit the house, but it drifted toward the stream.... Splash! Then, quicker than you could bat an eye, another splash; an Auca had dived after the treasure. Minutes later there must have been a half dozen or eight of the men on the bank examining the prize. Our hearts were grateful. We had not hoped to see this for perhaps months. Of course, we wonder what they were thinking.
"Several things seemed evident: They got our first gift. They aren't afraid of us in this type of approach. They are as animated, in one way or another, about this thing as we are."
Back at Arajuno, Ed learned another interesting bit of news. His local Indians reported the tracks of Aucas who had apparently hidden in the brush near Ed's house to observe what was going on there. Although there was no way of verifying this conjecture, it was credible. A Quichua woman, Joaquina, who had been captured by the Aucas and later escaped, had once told Dr. Tidmarsh that it was the Aucas' practice to sit on a certain hill overlooking the camp at Arajuno to observe what went on. It seemed that they had an intricate espionage system, which perhaps at this very moment was operating near the McCully's house.
The men planned to make a wooden model of the plane-with ribbons dangling from it-to hang outside Ed's house in order to identify Ed with the operation.
Eight days after writing the previous report, Nate Saint typed a heading on a fresh sheet of tissue:
"Report on the third visit to the 'neighbors.' " He continued:
"We refer to the Aucas as 'neighbors' and to their area as the neighborhood' to avoid the use of the name on the radio, or in the hearing of those who aren't supposed to be interested.
"We couldn't go out on 'visitation' on Thursday as we had planned because the Army called on us for a flight down the Curaray River in the interior looking for the body of a soldier who had drowned. We did not see any sign of the missing man but we did see a lot of Ecuador that lies beyond habitation. We understand that beyond the area we checked, out toward the Napo, some vestiges of civilization reappear. However, we flew for forty-five minutes, following every curve in the river without seeing a single sign of human life ... saw a little wild life: several tapir, some giant turtles, and an abundance of birds of paradise ... beautiful things gliding over the woods below.
"Next day, Ed and I got away from Arajuno at about eleven o'clock while Marilou kept all the Indians in school so they wouldn't ask too many difficult questions.
"First we flew down the Curaray looking for possible camp sites or temporary landing strip sites. (This was forty or fifty miles above the start of the area searched yesterday for the missing soldier.) We saw some interesting possibilities, but nothing ideal for an airstrip.
"However, up on the horizon along the ridges we saw something that looked like smoke. It seemed to be about the place where the Aucas are, so we decided to have a look. Maybe the boys had a smudge going so we'd be sure to find them with our gift bag. The smoke turned out to be the remnant of a low cloud, but we found ourselves over the Auca neighborhood at a lower altitude than we'd ever been before, and took the occasion to circle each of the four main houses and take some pictures. We saw Indians all over, some running down the stream bed from the manioc patch toward home, others coming from other directions. They didn't seem at all afraid. We shouted Auca phrases until we were hoarse.
"After we circled the house where we had received such an open reception last week, and flew on toward the next house, the Indians apparently thought the show was scheduled there for this week, and all took off down the stream bed to try to be in on it. At any rate, when we decided to repeat at the same house to reward their confidence, we came back over and found the place deserted except for what appeared to be two women. But soon the menfolk came charging back up the stream bed. There must have been big excitement down there.
"This week our gift was to be another aluminum pot containing a bunch of trinkets and beads, well ribboned. We also tied on a little ten-inch Indian basket (empty) in hopes they might put something in it and send it back up. But somehow or other, after we got the whole thing clear of the plane, the automatic release failed and we lost the kettle to the jungle below, perhaps 300 yards distant from a smaller manioc patch. It seems likely that they might find it, but not too probable since everyone was over at the big clearing waiting for the show to begin. We were already getting a little tired from all the photographing and shouting to them, but we felt we mustn't leave without giving them something, so we tied on a new machete from our emergency kit, left on the little basket, and lowered the whole works without any release mechanism.
"One of the more tiring elements on this trip was the rough air. We were constantly bouncing around and had a snappy drift from the northeast, so that our machete drifted badly. Several times when it was lowering near them they would scramble helter-skelter in that direction. It is really great sport. We don't know whether or not they have any system for determining who gets the prize. But as long as the supply holds up they should all keep encouraged.
"Finally after a couple of near misses, we set the packet within ten feet of the front door of their house. They had it immediately and took it out on the riverbank. Here the wind fouled up the works because every time around I had to roll completely out of the turn to compensate for drift and thus stay over the house. And every time I'd roll out of the turn, the pull on the line got really hard. They must have had the line for several minutes. We could not tell whether they were putting anything in the basket or not. They may have put in something too heavy to pick up, or they may have tied the line to something. At any rate we finally saw one fellow run diagonally into the river and stop abruptly and do something, suggesting that he was unsnagging the line. I felt the line loosen and we were free. We shouted at each other about the thrill of holding a line, the other end of which an Auca held.
"Our next decision was to fly past them low enough so that they could see us. That meant pulling in the entire line, a tough job, but after ten minutes of hard work we had it all in. Then down we circled. As we got lower, the crowd, formerly eight or ten, thinned out until there were only two or three in sight. We had another little bundle of ribbon to throw out as we went by. We tossed the ribbon from about 200 feet and a brown-skinned man had it like the spider takes a fly. We shouted. From the man's gestures and from past experience in similar operations among other Indians, I feel sure that the man shouted back to us, flailing his arms. He was the only one in sight and when we circled around the other side of the house he ran in one side of the house and out the other.
"I felt a keen disappointment as I thought how frightened they must have been when we swooped low. However, as we circled slowly higher and higher, they seemed to regain confidence and slowly reappeared. Finally everyone seemed to be present. How we hope that they regained their `party' spirit and laughed off their fright.
"Going away, we flew directly toward the Curaray, since we feel more and more that that will be the site of the first contact if the Lord is pleased to continue blessing our efforts."