PILKINGTON, George Lawrence

[s. 605] : Bom in Ireland, 1865. Died in Africa, 1898. Educated at Cambridge, and for a short time he was A istant Sailed Master at Harrow and Bedford Schools. January 23, 1890, imder the CMS to join the Uganda, Africa, Mi ion. On March 9, le than three months after his he had already, with the help of Henry arrival, Wright Duta, translated almost half of the Acts of the Apostles, induced the natives to translate Old Testament stories from Swahili, and begun to compile a Luganda grammar. He had completed the grammar and vocabulary, finished the Plne-yang-hslen Acts, and translated about twenty hymns by the end of May in the same year. Of the books of the New Testament, all but I. and II. Corinthians, Hebrews, James, I. and II. Peter were translated by January, 1892. The Gospels had been translated previously. The New Testament was finished, sent home, and printed by the Bible Society by Christmas, 1893. The Old Testament, of which he translated all but some of the minor prophets, was completed in 1896. Nor was Mr. Pilkington a translator only. The letters of that period show that he took his full share in teaching with the rest, and in all the events of that troublous time. The prominent position he toolc very early is sho-wn by the fact that when, on December 27, 1891, only a year after Mr. Pilkington’s arrival in Uganda, Mwanga, in one of his many changes, announced his intention of becoming a Protestant, it was to Mr. Pilkington that the chiefs first took the news. Early in the year 1898, while he was engaged in aiding as interpreter the British officers sent to restore order, he was struck do%vn by the Sudanese mutineers. Mr. Pilkington’s translations make a long list, and one which, for a young man In the forefront of of thirty-three, is amazing. them all, he completed the translation of the whole Bible into Luganda, in itself an enduring monument. He also revised and in part translated the Prayer Book, translated a hymn-book, catechism, and Bible stories; wrote a small work, Anonyalaba (“He that seeketh findeth”), in Luganda; compiled a Luganda grammar, a Lugan da-English and English-Luganda vocabuWhile at home lary, and other smaller works. he wrote, aided by Mr. Baslcerville, a pamphlet called The Gospel in Uganda and made designs for Central Africa for Christ. Harford-Batters by (C.F)., Pilkiiigton of Uganda, London and Ne-w York, 1899. 605