“On the (?) of April, the Maverick finally sailed from Los Angeles. On the morning of that day Jebsen gave me a sealed letter, addressed to nobody, with verbal instructions to hand it over to Page on the Annie Larsen immediately after I met him. Jebsen seemed to be anxious regarding this letter, and warned me to be careful and to see that it fell into no other hands. He also handed me another unaddressed letter to be given to the same man. This was an open letter which I read soon after leaving Los Angeles. There were two enclosures which were printed. One was a circular or memorandum of instructions as to how to work the machine gun or a small Hotchkiss, the diagram of which was given on the second enclosure. I am not quite certain of the type of weapon drawn on that second enclosure, but I think it was one of the two I have mentioned. The printed circular was evidently from the makers of that arm, but the manufacturer’s name was carefully cut out from it. Jebsen also handed me a third letter, without address, for Page, and open. It contained typewritten instructions as to how to stow the cargo to be transhipped from the Annie Larsen. It was just a short note, more in the nature of a suggestion than instructions. It said that the cases containing rifles were to be stowed in one of the two empty tanks of the Maverick and flooded with oil. The ammunition cases were to be stowed in the other empty tank, which was not to be flooded except as a last resort. This note, too, was intended for Page. There was a fourth open note for myself which contained suggestions as to what I should do in future with the Annie Larsen. Jebsen, at the same time, made over to me a bundle, consisting of about ten letters, with instructions to hand it over to Page. All these letters were addressed to Captain Othmann. Although Jebsen did not tell me so, I concluded that ‘Page’ and ‘Othmann’ were one and the same man, and that ‘Page’ was an assumed name.
“The day before sailing Jebsen introduced me to a man named B. Miller, who, he said, was a Swedish mining engineer, and who was going on the Maverick as far as San José del Cabo, to proceed thence to the mines near La Paz. Jebsen asked me to assist Miller in taking five ‘Persians’ from Los Angeles to San Pedro, and in finding quarters for them there for the night as they were to go on board the Maverick the following day. Jebsen told me nothing about these five Persians except that they were going with the Maverick as passengers right through to her destination, and were to be signed on the articles as anything. Accordingly I met Miller again the same evening at the Los Angeles railway station. I found five black men with him. On seeing me, he said: ‘Here are my men.’ He purchased tickets for them, and we all left by train for San Pedro, where I found lodgings for them in a cheap boarding-house for the night.
“The next morning I went on board the Maverick at San Pedro, where I met the Port Commissioner and the crew, who were already on board signed on. Captain Nelson was present. Miller signed on as ‘store-keeper’ and the five Persians as ‘waiters.’
“One of the five Persian waiters, named Jehangir, was evidently the leader and generally kept himself away from the rest. As far as I remember, the names of the others were Khan, Dutt, Deen, and Sham Sher. Later on I discovered that all these were false names. Jehangir’s real name, I believe, was Hari Singh; he signed his accounts and receipts as Hari Singh. I have no idea of the real names of the others.
“Five days after leaving Los Angeles we arrived at San José del Cabo, 27th April, I think. There Miller left us, and there, at Nelson’s instance, I applied for and got fresh clearance for ‘Anjer, Java, via Pacific Islands.’ This is the first time that any definite port was mentioned to me as the Maverick’s destination. There were evidently two reasons for not obtaining this clearance from the original port of departure; first, they did not want the American authorities to know the precise destination of the Maverick, which already had roused a certain amount of suspicion; and, secondly, because, I am sure, such a clearance as we desired would not be granted by any American port. According to it the Maverick could have touched at every island in the Pacific before arriving at Anjer. Jebsen had given me to understand that we might meet the Annie Larsen at San José del Cabo, but she was not there; so we left that port on the 28th of April and proceeded to Socorro Island where we arrived at 9 P. M. on the 29th and anchored in a bay some thirty yards off the shore. As we anchored, Nelson informed the crew that he was expecting to meet at that place the schooner Annie Larsen and asked them to be on the lookout for her. Altogether we were twenty-nine days at that island waiting for the schooner, which did not turn up after all. By the time we had anchored it was very dark and the first sign of life on the island was as camp fire close to the shore. Shortly after, a small boat pulled alongside with two American sailors in it. One of them came on the bridge and saw the captain, and after putting the question ‘Are you the people who are looking for the Annie Larsen?’ and getting a reply in the affirmative, he said that the Annie Larsen had been at the island, and being short of water, had left some thirteen days before. He delivered a note to Nelson stating that it was left by the Annie Larsen’s super-cargo, Page. Nelson passed the note over to me to read. It was a short note in English, saying: ‘This will be delivered to you by a member of the crew of the schooner Emma, who will explain his own position. I have been waiting for you a month, and am now going to the Mexican West Coast for supplies and water. I will return as soon as possible. Please await my return.’ (Signed) ‘Page.’
“The sailor man then told the following story: that he and his companion in the boat and two Mexican customs-house officials, who were in camp ashore, had left San José del Cabo some time before on the small American schooner Emma, with a cargo of bark for the Mexican port of Loreto; that the captain had proven himself incompetent, and they had lost their bearings, and after sailing for many days had eventually arrived at this island, which the master declared was a point close to Manzanillo, but which they discovered to be an island. The mate had died at sea; the master’s name was Clarke. These four men declined to go any farther with the captain of that ship and preferred to be left on the island on the off chance of being picked up by a passing vessel. The captain and the cook, the only other members of the crew, had left some days earlier for the Mexican coast. At the same time the Emma touched the island the Annie Larsen was there, and she provided the castaways with three empty water tanks, a rifle, and a few provisions. Since the departure of the Annie Larsen they were hoping for assistance being sent to them from the Mexican coast. We subsequently discovered that these castaways had rigged up a sort of condenser with the aid of their tanks and some old piping.
“The castaway who came on the Maverick at Socorro further told us that Page had told him that he had left another letter buried somewhere on the island close to the shore by the bay, which could be easily found if we would make a search for it. Assisted by some of the castaways I made a search for the second note left by Page and found it buried in a bottle under a sign which read: ‘Look Here.’ The second note was a lengthy repetition of the first. Page asked us to help the castaways but cautioned us not to take them aboard our ship. He said he would return as soon as he could get water and that we were to wait for him. I returned to the ship with the note and read it out to Nelson. Disregarding Page’s warning not to take the castaways aboard, he immediately asked them to come aboard, if they cared, which they did. They remained on the Maverick till the 6th of May when the American collier (Government ship) Nanshan arrived and took them off.
“The following Thursday, 13th May, H. M. S. Kent arrived; two officers boarded us immediately and examined our papers. They returned and came on again the next morning accompanied by several marines. They made a thorough search of the vessel this time and returned to their ship. Nelson returned the call. On his return Nelson told me that the Kent’s commander had questioned him rather closely as to what the Maverick was doing there and that in reply he had told him that he could not disclose his real purpose but in a roundabout sort of way hinted that she was there in connection with the Mexican troubles. The Kent remained there for about forty hours, during which I struck up an acquaintance with several of the officers. I directed them where good fishing and shooting were to be had and provided them with a few supplies. Although there was no water to be had on that island there were plenty of wild sheep. I am unable to say how they existed without water outside the rainy season.
“The Annie Larsen not turning up, we left about the 26th of May. Just before we left I went ashore and left there two notes in bottles for the Annie Larsen addressed to Page in case the ship should turn up after we had left. I put one of the bottles in a conspicuous place in the castaways’ camp. This note read as follows: ‘Consult our Post Office.’ by ‘our Post Office’ I meant the place where Page himself had buried his note for us. The other bottle I buried where I had found Page’s, and put up another signboard saying ‘Look again.’ This note told Page all that had occurred during our stay at the island and that we were going somewhere where we could get further instructions.
“Immediately after the first boarding party from H. M. S. Kent had left the Maverick after going through our papers, I was sent for by Captain Nelson on the bridge. When I got up there I found him in conversation with Jehangir. I gathered from Nelson that Jehangir had aboard two sacks and six suitcases full of literature which he was very anxious to hide from the Kent. We were expecting another visit from the Kent for the purpose of searching the ship, and Jehangir said he would not like the literature to fall into the hands of the Kent party. Jehangir did not like the idea of destroying the literature and suggested that it should be quietly taken ashore and buried there, pending the departure of the Kent. Neither Nelson nor myself fell in with the suggestion and were of opinion that it should be destroyed straight away, if it were dangerous to retain it. Jehangir eventually agreed to this and said he would just keep a sample of the various papers and pamphlets he had. Nelson grumbled even at that. I am not sure whether Jehangir did really preserve any specimens, but I think he did. The two sacks with their contents and the contents of the six suitcases were immediately burnt in the engine room. I personally saw some of this literature. It was all printed matter in a character unknown to me. Some of it was in newspaper form, some in leaflets, but most of it was in the form of pamphlets; the outside cover being mostly pink. The six empty suitcases were appropriated by various members of the crew, I took one of them myself, and it is with me at the present moment. Later I learned from Jehangir that the literature was printed in San Francisco and copies of it ‘existed’ in Constantinople and Berlin.