He's trying to tell the others that he found the beast, but ends up being mistaken for it in the dark and they kill him on accident
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Yes he was. He had just found out that the beast lives within and was going to tell all the boys. But the boys were having a feast and partying. When he comes out of the jungle, the boys think he is the beast and stab him to death, everyone takes part. The next day everyone realizes it is Simon; yet no one will admit it was. :)
He feels guilty about murdering Simon; him and the rest of the boys kill Simon at the end of chapter 9
The boys eventually do realized that it was Simon, rather than the beast in the middle of murdering him. However, swept away by their wild state, they continue to bash and beat him. If you remember, at one point, Roger pretends to be a pig and even Ralph gets carried away and wants to hurt him, turning the fun and games into something more violent. This example applies to when they were killing Simon as well;they wanted to get a chance to hurt something so vulnerable.
Simon was trying to make the point that the real beast might simply be themselves and the way they were behaving. He knew that it made no sense for their to be a real dangerous creature on the island. Nobody had been killed or injured by the 'beast' it left no tracks, it simply didn't exist except in their imaginations. But a boy had been killed through their negligence. Jack had put the importance of killing pigs above their chance of being rescued and he had physically assaulted Piggy and broken his glasses. The very real danger to boys on the island came from the boys themselves. That was what Simon was trying to say at the meeting.
SIMON.