Jim thought it was a great idea. The men could make contact with the Aucas without putting themselves in danger. But there was still a problem to solve: the spiral-line system relied on the person on the ground retrieving the goods directly from the bucket. Jim wasn’t so sure the Aucas would do that, at least not right away.
The men puzzled over the problem as they drank some hot chocolate. Nate decided that what they needed was an automatic release that would detach the bucket and leave it behind on the ground with the gifts in it. Then, after the airplane had left, the Aucas could safely retrieve the gifts. Nate agreed to design an automatic release mechanism.
Next was the question of what to put in the bucket. The men had lots of ideas, some serious, some silly. They narrowed the list of likely gifts to smoked meat, cheese, salt, candy, cooking implements, paring knives, aluminum pots, plastic containers, and machetes (the one Western item the Indians prized above all).
The following morning, the weather had improved. Nate flew Ed to Arajuno and then took Jim on to Shandia.
A week after returning to Shandia, Jim made the trek to Hacienda Ila. Arriving around noon, he was invited to lunch with the plantation owner, Señor don Carlos Sevilla. At lunch, when Jim asked Señor Sevilla if he could spend some time with Dayuma, Señor Sevilla agreed without asking any questions. Since Rachel Saint spent so much time with Dayuma, he assumed all missionaries were interested in meeting the girl.
Jim sat on a low stool and stared at the Auca woman close up. Dayuma was short and dark, with high cheekbones. She looked remarkably like a Quichua Indian, except for the telltale earlobes. Jim had been told that both Auca men and women had their ears pierced at a young age and tiny balsa wood earplugs were inserted into the opening. As the child got older, the hole in the ear was stretched with larger and larger earplugs, until by the time the child was a teenager the hole was the size of a silver dollar.
Dayuma seemed eager to help. Jim decided it was probably because she was being excused from digging manioc or doing some other menial task. Dayuma didn’t ask a lot of questions either. She just seemed content to answer Jim’s inquiries.
Before long, Jim had his little black notebook out, jotting down the simple Auca words and phrases Dayuma was giving him. By the end of an hour, Jim had compiled a respectable vocabulary to study. He thanked Dayuma and asked Señor Sevilla if he could visit again.
“You’re welcome anytime, as long as you stay for lunch and make good conversation,” laughed Señor Sevilla.
As Jim trekked back through the jungle, he repeated several Auca sentences to himself. “Bito weka pomopa” and “Abomiro imi?” He thought the phrases had a singsong quality to them, making them easy to remember. The first phrase meant “I want to come near you,” and the second meant “What is your name?” Both were good phrases for demonstrating to someone that you wanted to be his friend, especially when friendship was a matter of life or death!
Over the next month, the men involved in Operation Auca kept in contact with each other through coded radio messages and through letters sent with Nate Saint on the weekly vegetable run. Jim also made a trip to Puyupungu to update Pete Fleming on all the details of the operation.
Jim visited Dayuma several more times and soon had a stack of index cards with an Auca word or phrase written on one side and the English equivalent on the other. Although the phrases were only pebbles in comparison to the mountain that is the entire Auca language, Jim knew that overcoming the language barrier was critical to helping the Aucas understand that the missionaries came as friends. His hope was that the few Auca words and phrases they had learned would open the door to communication with the Aucas.
Meanwhile, Nate Saint and Johnny Keenan were busy working on a way to release the bucket from the rope once it hit the ground. The solution proved to be simple but effective. It consisted of a broom handle and two loops of rope. One loop was attached to the end of the rope, and the other to the bucket. When the bucket hit the ground, the tension on the rope was released and the loop that was attached to the bucket slipped off the broom handle. When the rope was reeled back in, the bucket was left behind on the ground.
On October 6, 1955, Jim waited anxiously by the radio. If the weather was clear at Shell Mera, Nate Saint and Ed McCully planned to drop the first gifts to the Aucas. Finally, the radio crackled. Marj Saint was reporting the good news that the yellow Piper Cruiser was headed toward Auca territory. Jim and Betty prayed diligently for Nate and Ed while waiting to hear further.
Several hours later, Nate’s voice came over the radio with more good news. The gift drop had been a success. Somewhere in the jungle southeast of Arajuno, a group of Auca Indians were now dividing up the gifts. The plane had lowered a bucket containing a metal kettle with a lid, a bag of salt, some brightly colored buttons (raided from Marj Saint’s sewing box), and a dozen or so yards of brightly colored ribbon (also from the sewing box). Even though Nate didn’t report actually seeing any Aucas, he and Ed felt confident that many pairs of eyes had been watching the drop from among the trees of the surrounding jungle.
After the second drop, a week later, there was even better news: Nate and Ed had seen the Aucas! While circling about 2,500 feet above the settlement, Ed saw a single Auca man directly beneath the plane. The man was running backward and forward, although he did not appear to be attempting to scurry out of view. Within seconds, he was joined by two other Auca men, and the three of them ran around together. Ed pointed to them while Nate craned to see them over the instrument panel.
The two missionaries had decided that this was the right place to make the gift drop, and when Nate signaled, Ed began to let out the rope to lower the bucket. The men had placed in the bucket a machete wrapped in heavy canvas so that no one on the ground would reach for it and cut himself. When the bucket had nearly reached the ground, the machete fell out and tumbled into a stream. One of the Auca men dived in to claim it. Four other men emerged from the jungle, and soon all of them were gathered around admiring the machete.
Now that the missionaries had actually seen the Aucas, they decided that each member of the Operation Auca team would take a turn flying with Nate on the gift drops. Jim was thrilled. He was scheduled to go with Nate on the next trip.
Interestingly, it seemed that the Aucas were as fascinated with the missionaries as the missionaries were with the Aucas. Several more Quichua Indians had reported seeing Auca footprints near the McCullys’ Arajuno house. Jim and the others agreed that the McCullys were probably being watched most of the time, and they wondered what to do about it. They hoped the Aucas connected the house with the gift drops, but there was no way to be sure. What was needed was a way to help the Aucas make the connection. Eventually, the missionaries hung a large model airplane from the McCullys’ roof along with photos of each of the men. Then the Aucas would be able to understand that the house, the airplane, the gifts, and the missionaries were all linked together.
The next gift drop was on the first Thursday in November. Jim waited in great anticipation beside the airstrip at Shandia, straining to hear the Piper Cruiser’s engine. Soon, he heard its familiar revving buzz, and in no time Nate Saint had pulled the plane to a halt at the end of the airstrip.
“Did you get it finished?” Jim asked Nate as he climbed into the airplane and buckled his seat belt.
“Sure did,” replied Nate with a grin, patting a large box behind him. “Here it is. The loudspeaker’s all hooked up and ready to go. Are you ready with the phrases?”
Now it was Jim’s turn to grin. “Ready? I’ve been ready for this all my life.”
As the Piper gained altitude and banked away from Shandia, Jim unsuccessfully tried to calm himself down. He was on his way to converse with the Aucas, a thrilling proposition, even though he knew it wouldn’t be a real conversation. Twenty minutes later, the plane was nearing the Auca settlement. Nate pointed toward the ground, and Jim peered from the plane to catch his first glimpse of the Aucas.
“I see their huts!” he yelled to Nate, expecting an Auca to emerge from one at any moment.
No Aucas appeared.
“I don’t see any people yet,” Jim informed Nate.
“You may not see them now, but just wait until we drop the bucket. If past behavior is anything to go by, they’ll come running once they see it. First though, I’ll make a couple of low passes so you can try out this gadget.”
Nate descended until he was about five hundred feet above the settlement. Jim again peered from the plane, fascinated. Below him he could clearly see the tops of rectangular thatched houses, with canoes pulled up on the riverbank in front of the houses.
Finally, the time had come. With trembling hands, Jim picked up the microphone. Holding it close to his lips, he said, “Bito weka pomopa.”
Nate and Jim made a couple of passes over the settlement, with Jim using the loudspeaker to speak his phrases to the Aucas. Then Nate pulled on the yoke, and the Piper began to climb. When they got back to 2,500 feet in altitude, Nate gave Jim instructions on how to lower the bucket of gifts.
Sure enough, once Jim lowered the bucket to the ground, a group of Auca men descended upon it from the jungle like ants on an apple core. Nate did not even have to use the automatic release system anymore; the Aucas came right to the bucket while it was still attached to the rope.
“I see them!” yelled Jim. “I see them!”
Jim watched the drama unfold below. The Auca villager who had won the grab for the machete in the bucket held it high over his head and whirled it around. The blade glistened in the sun. Then the man cupped his hands and seemed to shout something at the plane.
“I think he’s saying thank you,” Jim yelled excitedly to Nate. “Let’s try something else.”
“Sure. There’s an aluminum pot behind your seat.”
Jim reeled the bucket back into the plane. He reached behind his seat and lifted the pot, opened its lid, and looked inside. The pot contained bunches of ribbons, a yellow shirt, and a string of beads. Jim placed it in the bucket, and the gift-drop procedure began again. This time, the Aucas stayed in sight while the bucket was lowered. The eager group grabbed it and emptied its contents before it even touched the ground.
Nate banked the plane to the northwest. It was time to head home. First stop was Arajuno, where Ed was waiting at the airstrip for them.
The three men walked to the house, where Marilou produced a tray of cookies and a pitcher of lemonade. As they enjoyed their snack, the men got into a serious discussion about their next step. Jim suggested they should enter Auca territory during the first full moon of the new year, which was to be on January 3, 1956. The light of the full moon would help to spot anyone creeping up on them during the night. The team would paddle down the river in canoes until they found a suitable piece of land on which to clear an airstrip. That way, they could land the airplane, and the Aucas would surely recognize it. There would be no mistaking the fact that these were the same men who had been shouting friendly greetings from above and dropping gifts to them.
Not everyone agreed with Jim’s idea. Ed McCully wanted Jim to learn more of the language before they tried face-to-face contact. He knew that pronouncing just one word incorrectly could put them all in danger. Nate Saint, on the other hand, thought they should continue with the gift drops and wait and see what became of that. Besides, the rainy season started in mid-January, making it virtually impossible to clear land for an airstrip. He suggested they wait until the start of the next dry season. And anyway, the Aucas obviously knew where the McCullys lived. Perhaps if everyone was patient, the Aucas would come to them.
