The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1903-11-20

their stay the lives of the missionaries
were never safe. The savages swarmed
about their houses and allowed them
selves all kinds of liberties. Mr.. Bing
ham, his wife, Mahoe, native assistant
and his wife. were the only mission
aries there and could do nothing.
One incident among the many which
Mr.. Bingham told may serve to show
how fearful the uncertainty of their
lives was to the little band of mission
aries One morning Mr.. Bingham dis
covered big. burly savage crawling
through clapboard which served as a
window. AS the fellow was evidently
intent on stealing. Mr.. Bingham scared
him by letting down the clapboard with
a bang by means of string with
which it was generallv opened and shut
The noise so scared the savage that he
took to his heels His comrades, who
stood near by, ridiculed him on seeing
this, and this made the fellow very ang-
ry. as the natives are very sensitive to
ridicule. He consequently went up to
Mr. Bingham and pushed him with his
shoulder. Mr. Bingham stood his
ground for some time. the savage
standing next to him and showing him
every now and then. Mrs. Bingham
finally appeared and called the hus-
band in to breakfast and Mr.. Bingham
gladly took the excuse for getting away
This did not end the incident. After
breakfast, when Mr.. Bingham went in
to the meeting house where there was
a large number of the savages assem-
bled, the would-be thief rose from
among them and followed behind him
up to the room, where Mr.. Bingham
sat down in a chair. The native i'm
mediately squatted down on the floor
in front of him and producing two
pistols began pointing them at him,
first one and then the other. Mr.. Bing-
ham thought that his last hour had
come, but he remained calm. closed his
eyes and prayed The native did not
fire. however, but kept on sitting there,
lifting up the pistols and aiming every
now and then. The rest of the natives
filed out of the room gradually, leaving
Mr.. Bingham, the savage and the ma
tive assistant alone For two hours they
remained thus, Mr.. Bingham expect
ing every moment to be his last, but
finally the savage got tired and left the
room without doing any harm.
Many other incidents are told of their
life there One of their children died
and was buried at Aniang where they
had built cottage. Called away some
time afterward, Mr.. and Mrs. Bng
ham left their home to the mercies of
the natives. On their return they found
the house torn down and turned into
nroas or canoes and the bones of their
little one scattered about the yard. An
other son, Hiram Bingham Jr,. SUR
vived the vicissitudes of early mission
airy life and is now an instructor of his
tory at Harvard
Mrs. Bingham left work in the Gill
bert Islands that will endure for all
time. She became thoroughly acquaint-
ed with the Gilbert tongue and trans
lated number of works into that Ian
guage She gave the Gilbertese a
Reading Book, "Old Testament Bible
Stories, Primary Geography. "Pri-
mary Arithmetic, and assisted Mr..
Bingham in translatng the whole of the
New Testament into the same language.
Mrs Bingham has been a well known
member of Central Union church and
also of the Women's Board of Missions
of Central Union church and in re-
cent years verv many sympathetic mes
sageS have been sent to her bv the Board
regrettng that her health did not per-
nit her to attend the meetings.
In addition to her husband, her sis
ter-in-aw, Mrs. Lydia B. Coan, was
present at the time she passed away last
evening,
The funeral will be held from the
Bingham home at three o'clock this aft
ernoon and the interment will be in the
old family lot of the Binghams in Ka-
waiahao Cemetery. The Rev. w. M,
Kincaid will officiate.
II. II, Williams has charge of the
funeral arrangements.