Indian police have begun the dangerous mission of trying to recover the body of a Washington state missionary who was killed by tribesmen — but it remains unclear if they’ll ever make it onto the remote island.

A police boat squared off with the Sentinelese tribesmen of North Sentinel island, a part of the Andaman and Nicobar island chain, on Saturday but retreated to avoid confrontation.

It was just one of repeated attempts police have recently made to access the tiny island, which is protected by the Indian government and cut off from the modern world.

The tribesmen have made it clear they want to be left alone and are known for their violent attacks on outsiders who try to encroach.

Police said they’re doing their best to remain respectful of North Sentinel’s indigenous people, who scholars believe are descendants of Africans who migrated to the area about 50,000 years ago. The islanders have no immunity to outside diseases — meaning their entire population could easily be wiped out.

“They are a treasure,” said Dependera Pathak, director-general of police on the Andaman and Nicobar island groups. “We cannot go and force our way in. We don’t want to harm them.”

John Allen Chau, a Christian missionary, is believed to have been shot and killed with arrows as he approached the tribesmen on Nov. 17. Fishermen who helped the doomed 26-year-old said they saw the Sentinelese drag Chau’s body and bury it on the beach.

In journal entries prior to his death, Chau said he wanted to spread Christianity to the islanders. Seven people have been arrested for helping Chau make the perilous jaunt and authorities have since been struggling to recover his body.

On Friday and Saturday, a boat carrying police and two of the fishermen approached the island and watched the Sentinelese through binoculars. On Saturday, the tribesmen were armed with spears and bows and arrows but they didn’t attempt to shoot them, Pathak said.

“We watched them from a distance and they watched us from a distance,” he said.

Officials are also studying the 2006 killing of fishermen whose boat drifted onto the island. The bodies, which were never recovered, were buried on the beach but then dug up a few days later and propped upright.

“We are looking carefully at what happened then, and what (the Sentinelese) did,” Pathak said. “We are consulting anthropologists to see what kind of friendly gesture we can make.”

Only anthropologists have made contact — albeit very limited — with the Sentinelese in recent years, occasionally dropping off gifts of coconuts and bananas. But those visits stopped years ago.

The 23-square-mile island has been off limits to outsiders — but that ban was relaxed over the summer, allowing researchers with pre-approval to visit.

Officials have said Chau, of Vancouver, Washington, never received such approval.

His journal entries made it clear he knew the dangers of making contact.

“I DON’T WANT TO DIE,” he wrote on the first day he tried to reach North Sentinel island, when a young boy shot an arrow at him and missed. “Would it be wiser to leave and let someone else to continue. No I don’t think so.”

With Post wires