HANKEY

[s. 305] : A village in Cape Colony, S. Africa, situated in the Humans dorp division, 45 miles W. of Port Elizabeth. Population, about 1,600. This settlement was established by the LMS in 1828 as a refuge for freedmen, upon land which After some years the Society had purchased. the quality of the negro population began to deteriorate, and in 1875 the LMS ceased to proIn vide for their care and spiritual nurture. 1900 it took up this work again and established a school there for the higher education of the children of colored Christians throughout the colony. It now (1903) has 2 mi ionaries and their wives, 18 native workers, 3 day schools, 1,600 profe ing 1 boarding school, and about WMS Christians, of whom 370 are church members. HANNINGTON, James Born at Hurst pier point,: England, September 3, 1847. Love of nature, of fun, and of adventure was phenomenal with Hannington. He shrank from no risk which promised a view or a specimen. Averse to study, he left school at the age of fifteen, and was put To in his father’s counting-room at Brighton. whatever suited his tastes or habits he applied himself with untiring perseverance, never to be outdone, and never to be foiled. As captain of a battery and as commander of a steam yacht he early displayed ability in the control of men, and But he was as dis resource under exigencies. In boyhood the inclined to busine as to study. love of his mother was the sheet-anchor of his life. He not only never neglected the externals of religion, but was never wholly satisfied with a About the age of twenty life apart from God. one he decided to prepare for the ministry of the Church of England, and to that end, in October, He soon 1868, entered St. Mary’s Hall, Oxford. established an ascendancy over his fellow-students, which he maintained without a rival through his university course, and this influence was often beneficial, but it cannot be said that he was studious, except in the line of his pursuit as a Kanninston Hawaiian He was ordained a deacon in 1874, and took charge of a small parish in Devons hire. There he experienced a new conversion, and in 1875 a conversation on mi ions with two ladies Three led him to study that subject thoroughly. years later the cruel death of Me rs. Smith and O’Neil, two mi ionaries on the shores of the naturalist. Victoria Nyanza, in Africa, greatly moved him. Believing that he had certain elements of character as well as experiences of life that fitted him for pioneer mi ion work, and obtaining the consent of his wife, who could not accompany him, he offered himself to the CMS for the African field The offer was accepted, and he for five years. was entrusted with the leadership of a party of six to reenforce the Central African Mi ion An appeal from him in the at Rubaga. London Times for subscriptions to enable him to take a boat to navigate the lake was succe ful. He sailed with his party May 17, 1882, for Zanzibar. On the voyage he studied Swahili, the language spoken by the natives on the coast, and the knowledge so obtained was very useful to him. The party set out for Uganda by the “old route,” via Mamboia, Myui and Msalala, thence by boat acro Victoria Nyanza to Rubaga. He soon had severe attacks of African fever, dysenHis health being tery and rheumatic fever. greatly shattered, it was decided that he must In January, 1883, he started return to England. for Zanzibar, and embarking there, reached England June 10. After his health was restored he was consecrated Bishop of Equatorial Africa, and in January, 1885, returned again to the Dark Continent. On reaching Frere town, which he intended to make his home, he began the visitation of every prominent mi ion station within 250 miles of the coast. To reach the important etation at Taita, on the mountain Ndara, 2,500 feet above the plain, he had to traverse swamps and 200 miles of difficult and dangerous desert. He had frequently formulated in his mind the idea of opening up a new route to Uganda, through a shorter, more elevated and healthier region than the one which had shattered his constitution two years earlier, and early in 1885, after careful consultation, he started with 200 porters from Mombasa. The party reached KwaSundu, near the Victoria Nyanza, after many adventures. Bishop Hannington pushed forward with a part On November 8 word of his men to Uganda. was brought to those left at Kwa Sundu that the bishop and his party had been killed. Four only of the fifty escaped to bring the sad news and to tell the manner of his death. The encroachments of the various foreign powers on African soil had naturally awakened suspicion of whites, including mi ionaries. There was a strong prejudice in Uganda against the approach of foreigners from the north. When Mr. Thomson penetrated to Usoga two years before, his arrival occasioned new alarm and suspicion. A report of the highhanded proceedings of the Germans in Zanzibar added fuel to the flame, and the chiefs at once counseled killing all the mi ionaries, “who,” they said, “were only the forerunners of invasion.” At this critical time the arrival of Bishop Hannington at the north side of the lake was announced, and the council decided that he should be put to death. Mwanga was at first unwilling, and suggested that he should be sent back. The thought of booty decided the point. The bishop was enticed from his men by a band led by an Arab. He was dragged with great violence over 288 the ground, and forced into a filthy hut, and, after eight days, led forth to be killed. His men were speared to death. He was shot with his own rifle October 29, 1885. lie died without tear, and said to the soldiers appointed to kill him: “Go, tell Mwanga that I die for the Bag and a, and that I have purchased the road to Uganda with my life.” His last words to his friends in England, scribbled by the light of some camp-fire, were: “If this is the last chapter of my earthly history, then the next will be the first page of the heavenly no blots and smiidges, no incoherence, but sweet converse in the presence of the Lamb.” Dawson (C. L.), James Hannington, liondon and New York. — 1888. HANNOVER; Mi ionary Society of the Luther an Free Church of. See Germany; Mi ionary Societies op. 306