The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-01-08
Rev. Hiram Bingham, ST..

The late Rev. Hiram Bingham, Senior
was born at Bennington, VT, October 3Oth
1889 graduated at Middlebury College in
1916, and at Andover Theological Seminary
in 1919. He and his clerical associate in
the Mission, the late Rev. Asa Thurston,
were ordained at Goshen, CT, on the 29th of
September. He was soon after married to
Miss Sybil Moseley, of Westfeld, Mass, a
lady of distinguished qualifications for the
missionary work.
The pioneers of the Sandwich Island Mis-
sion consisted of Rev. Hiram Bingham, Rev.
Asa Thurston and their wives, and of Messrs.
Daniel Chamberlain, Thomas Holman, Sam
uel Whitney, Elisha Loomis. Samuel Rug
giles, and their wives, together with three
Hawaiians-John Honolii, Thomas Hopu
and William Kanui, who had been educated
at the Mission School in Cornwall, CT. They
sailed from Boston October 23d, 1919, on
the brig ZHaddeus, Capt. Blanchard, and
arrived at Honolulu April 10Th, 1920. after
a passage of six months. Here Mr.. Bingham
took up his residence during the twenty
years of his missionary life. Honolulu was
then a large irregular village of grass huts,
inhabited by ignorant, idolatrous and super
stitious savages.
1t is not easy at this late period to emu
AbSAotS LII liz tItttAc oAo pifro " ttO
pioneer Missionaries to these Islands. Their
opportunities t. communicate with their
friends and the Prudential Committee in
Boston were few and far between. Their
annual supplies from home were on a very
small scale, and by no means sufficient for
the health and comfort of their families.
Here they were strangers In a strange land,
among a people destitute of civil and reli-
gious institutions, whose language had never
been reduced to writing. They must begin
de moro, with the alphabet, determine the
number of its vowels and consonants, make
up 3. vocabulary of words. decide upon their
photography and their etymology; they must
enter Immediately upon the work of prepar-
ing elementary school books, must translate
portions of Scripture. and thus prepare the
way to communicate the good news and glad
tidings of salvation to this people.
But they had trials to meet of a far more
formidable character than these. Like Paul
the Apostle to the GentiIes, they could say
" In penils of robbers, in perils by the heather,
and in perils by nsy oacm countrynen.'
Yes, some of their greatest trials and appre-
tensions of evil were from their oscn conn
trynaen! But notwithstanding the many
trying circumstances in which they were
placed at the commencement of their Mis-
sion, they vent forward in the name of their
Lord and Master, and he enabled them to
come off more than ~conquerers. Truth and
righteousness prevailed, and the rulers in a
few years adopted the Christian religion as
the religion of the nation.
A few months after the arrival of the pio-
neers at these Islands, Messrs. Bingham and
Thurston wrote a joint letter TO the Society
of Inquiry on Missions at Andover Theolog-
zeal Seminary, in which are the following
prophetic interrogations " Is it too much to
hope that. before many months shall pass
away, perhaps on SOM favored day of the
monthly concert, while Zion is on her knees
before God. this nation may be born, and