A party comprised of Lieutenant Hugonin, soldiers of the 96th Regiment, European settlers, missionary and interpreter Clamor Schürmann, a Port Lincoln and Adelaide Aboriginal guide, surprised a group on the shores of Coffin Bay. Despite firm instructions not to fire, one soldier shot Numma in the stomach. Numma was fishing in the water. The soldier, and subsequently Hugonin, claimed Numma aimed his spear at him. Schürmann provides a different account.
(See 'The South Australian Frontier and its Legacies' for more details.)