Once the Auca women had crossed the river they seemed to relax. They squatted by the fire, and Ed offered them some lemonade. They drank it with enthusiasm. When they had finished drinking, a small, muscular Auca warrior appeared on the other side of the river. He waded across and joined the two women by the campfire. The missionaries eagerly welcomed him, and soon the three Aucas were taking turns talking as fast as they could. They didn’t appear to notice that the missionaries could understand only one word in a hundred, if they were lucky.
The question of what to do next was answered by “George,” the nickname the missionaries gave the Auca warrior. George trotted over to the airplane and began to climb in. His message was loud and clear: “Take me for a ride.”
Nate laughed. “If that’s what George wants, then that’s what George will get,” he said as he walked over to the plane. They found a spare shirt of Pete’s and buttoned it on George, since it would be a lot cooler in the air with no doors on the plane. George was quite a sight to see sitting in the front seat of the Piper.
As the plane lifted off Palm Beach, George started yelling, and he yelled all the way to the Auca settlement. When he saw his village from the air, he yelled even louder and then collapsed into laughter when he saw the look of shock on the faces of his relatives below. Nate could not begin to imagine what the Aucas on the ground were thinking. George, who had no idea of the danger of an airplane, tried to crawl out onto the wing strut so the Aucas below could see him. Nate was glad they’d put a shirt on him, as it provided something to grab onto to pull George back into the plane.
When they got back to Palm Beach, George had a long talk with the women, and there was a lot of giggling. “Delilah,” as they dubbed the younger woman, and the older Auca woman showed George what they’d been up to as well. They offered him a hamburger, complete with ketchup, which he ate gladly. Then they handed him Ed’s Time magazine. George stared at it for some time, though he had no idea of written language, photographs, or current events.
The men passed the rest of the afternoon watching the reaction of the Aucas as they presented them with gifts and showed them gadgets. Jim Elliot got out a yo-yo. Nate played his harmonica. Ed blew up several balloons, and Pete showed them how to ping rubber bands. Roger presented them with a skein of red wool. George took control of it and quickly wound it around his body like a sash. Delilah made clicking noises and smiled at his new decoration.
Nate and Pete waited as long as they possibly could before they flew out to Arajuno for the night. On the way they wondered aloud what the three Aucas would tell their fellow Aucas about the day.
As the evening wore on, the Aucas seemed happy to stay with the remaining three men. Jim Elliot gestured for them to spend the night sleeping by the fire. The offer seemed to please the older woman. However, Delilah didn’t seem happy. She got up quickly and walked off into the jungle. She was gone as silently as she had arrived. George yelled after her, but she didn’t turn around. After a couple of minutes, he shrugged his shoulders, stood up, and followed her into the jungle.
Jim, Ed, and Roger waited for the older woman to do the same. Surely she wouldn’t think it was safe for her to stay alone with three cowodi (outsiders). To their surprise, she did stay, and when darkness had completely engulfed the jungle, she curled up beside the fire and went to sleep.
As the three missionaries climbed the ironwood tree to bed, they were thrilled with how the day had gone. They had made friendly contact with the Aucas. Surely, they thought, the three Aucas would go back to their village and tell the others there was nothing to be afraid of, and the rest of the village would come to visit them on Palm Beach.
What the Operation Auca men had no way of knowing at the time was why George and Delilah had come to their campsite in the first place. George and Delilah had wanted to marry, but Delilah’s family did not like George and would not give them permission to marry. This had upset Delilah, who had told her family she would run away to the cowodi (outsiders) if they didn’t change their minds about the wedding. Instead, her family laughed at her, so in a rage she had set off through the jungle. George followed her, but in Auca culture it is a very bad thing for an unmarried man and woman to be alone together, so the older woman had followed them to be their chaperone. They had all arrived at Palm Beach together, just as Delilah’s desire to run away had petered out. They went ahead with a visit anyway. And they had an interesting time with the cowodi, who turned out to be a strange bunch but not dangerous. However, when first Delilah and then George left the campsite, the older woman had had enough of chasing after them. So she stayed on the beach and got a good night’s sleep. In the morning, this created a problem for George, because he and Delilah had spent the night alone together. He had to think of a good excuse quickly. And he did. He decided to tell a lie: a lie that would change the course of countless lives.
The next morning when Jim, Roger, and Ed climbed down from their tree house, the embers of the fire where the older woman had slept were still warm. They realized she must have stayed all night and fed the fire. But now she was nowhere to be seen.
All day Saturday, the men waited for something to happen. Nate estimated it would take George and Delilah about six hours to walk back to the Auca village, if that was where they were headed. It would take them an hour or two to explain to the other Aucas what had happened when they visited the cowodi, and then another six hours for a larger group to trek back to Palm Beach. But they did not come, and by three in the afternoon, Nate felt it was time for him and Pete to head back to Arajuno. First, though, he gathered up all the film from the cameras and letters the men had written to their wives. Whatever happened, they wanted the outside world to have a record of what they had done on Palm Beach.
As they flew back, Nate and Pete couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. Why hadn’t the Aucas come back? After a good night’s sleep, Nate felt a lot more hopeful. Something told him today was going to be a special day.
On the way back to Palm Beach, Nate circled the Auca settlement to see whether there was any unusual activity going on. But there wasn’t even any of the usual activity. The place seemed deserted. It was a great sign. Nate and Pete grinned at each other. Maybe the whole village was on its way down to the beach to meet them!
Nate slowed the plane to about sixty-five miles per hour and skimmed along close above the thick vegetation. It was impossible to spot the Aucas through the dense canopy of trees, but Nate had to try. Pete strained his eyes trying to peer through the treetops. Then, amazingly, they saw them! Wading across a stream ahead were ten Aucas headed toward Palm Beach. Today really was the day when they would meet the whole Auca village!
As the two men flew on to Palm Beach, Nate checked his watch. It was 12:30 p.m., time to call Marj on the radio and let her know how things were going. How excited she would be to know things were finally moving ahead. Nate told her they were expecting an Auca visit in the early afternoon and that he would report in with her at 4:30, though he knew she wouldn’t leave the radio room all afternoon, just in case they needed help.
As the Piper Cruiser’s wheels touched down on the sand of Palm Beach, Nate yelled to the others. “This is it, guys! They’re on their way.”
The men all let out a whoop of excitement. Their faith and patience were finally about to be rewarded.
Chapter 15
The Radio Remained Silent
The ten Aucas creeping silently through the jungle had been up all night, carving and sharpening new nine-foot spears. What else could they do? they had asked themselves as they worked. An enemy had entered their territory, an enemy who had already attacked three of their people. Nankiwi had told them so. As he ran his fingers over the red wool wound around his waist, Nankiwi had told them how they had fled in panic. He and Gimari had run in the same direction, and Mintaka, who had already crossed the river, ran in another direction. Thus, the three of them had become separated, and Nankiwi and Gimari had been forced to spend the night together. But as Nankiwi explained, that point wasn’t important. What was important was that a group of dangerous cowodi had invaded their territory intent on harming them just like all the other cowodi had done in the past.
This was bad news. The Waorani (the name the Aucas called themselves) had hoped the cowodi in the yellow wood-bee (airplane) might be friendly. After all, the wood-bee that buzzed over the village had dropped many ax heads, machetes, and iron pots. This was not the work of an enemy, or was it? Only a very clever enemy would pretend to be friendly and then attack. These cowodi must be extra clever!
After Nankiwi had told them all about how the cowodi had attacked them, Gikita, the old man of the village, began to recall all the awful things other cowodi had done to them throughout the years.
Through the night, Gikita told them story after story about the treacherous cowodi. He told of cowodi with guns that killed a person with a cloud of smoke, of cowodi who had stolen their children to work on haciendas, cowodi who had killed the fish and animals, and cowodi who had cleared away huge patches of the jungle. With each new story, hatred of the cowodi grew, and the solution became more clear. The cowodi on the banks of the Curaray River were surely no different from any other cowodi, and they would have to be killed.
Gikita’s stories had made them all so angry at the cowodi they had forgotten to ask Nankiwi who had given him the red wool he now wore around his body as a sash or why, if the cowodi were so dangerous, had they taken him in their wood-bee and brought him back? They were questions that seemed unimportant to ask. They had already decided what to do. They would follow the old ways and kill the intruders.
The attack party had set out through the jungle with their spears. Now the sound of water rushing over stones told them they were near the Curaray. The five young men and their leader peered out from the leaves. They were on the same side of the river as the missionaries. They could see the yellow wood-bee standing at the end of the beach. They counted the cowodi; there were five of them. The cowodi were big men, and they surely had guns. The young warriors crept back from the edge of the river about a hundred yards and began to argue. They told Gikita it wasn’t possible to kill five big strong cowodi who had guns. They wanted to watch the cowodi for a while. Gikita argued with them. Weren’t they strong enough to kill the cowodi and protect their families and territory? Didn’t they know the cowodi would kill all the Waorani if they didn’t kill them first? Hadn’t they listened to Nankiwi? The young men hung their heads in shame. They must kill or be killed. Now was not the time to be a coward.
Gikita announced the plan of attack. Three of the women in the party would enter the river from the far side to distract the cowodi. While their attention was distracted, Gikita would attack. He would spear each of the men himself, and the young warriors would then finish them off. They all agreed with his plan.
The women waded into the river and approached the beach from the opposite bank. Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming waded into the river to greet them, just as they had done three days before when the other three visitors had arrived.
At the same time, Gikita crept around through the jungle behind Nate, Roger Youderian, and Ed McCully. As he did so, he slipped on a wet log and fell. His spears clattered to the ground. All three men turned to see what the noise was. The four youngest attackers started to run away. They had lost the element of surprise, the most important thing in any successful attack. Still, Gikita had to show the young warriors how to act strong. With a warlike yell to the younger warriors to follow him, Gikita charged out onto the beach to begin the attack. His first target was the wood-bee pilot. He drew back his powerful right arm and hurled his first spear. It hit its mark. Nate fell onto the sand, his arm crashing against a rock, shattering the glass of his wristwatch. The hands on the watch stuck at 3:10.
