rmission. I requested that the consul be allowed to come
aboard. The consul, Herr Schild, as also did the brothers Baeumer,
gave us assistance in the friendliest fashion. From the German
steamers boats could come alongside and talk with us. Finally, we
were allowed to have German papers. They were, to be sure, from
August only. From then until March, 1915, we saw no papers.

"Hardly had we been towed out of the harbor again after twenty-four
hours, on the evening of the 28th of November, 1914, when a searchlight
flashed before us. I thought, 'Better interned than prisoner.' I
put out all lights and withdrew to the shelter of the island. But
they were Hollanders and didn't do anything to us. Then for two
weeks more we drifted around, lying still for days. The weather was
alternately still, rainy, and blowy. At length a ship, a freighter,
came in sight. It saw us and made a big curve around us. I made
everything hastily 'clear for battle.' Then one of our officers
recognized her for the _Choising_. She showed the German flag. I
sent up light rockets, although it was broad day, and went with
all sails set, that were still setable, toward her. The _Choising_
was a coaster from Hongkong to Siam. She was at Singapore when
the war broke out, then went to Batavia, was chartered, loaded
with coal for the enemy, and had put into Padang in need, because
the coal in the hold had caught fire. There we had met her.

"Great was our joy now. I had an my men come on deck and line up
for review. The fellows hadn't a rag on. Thus, in nature's garb,
we gave three cheers for the German flag on the _Choising_. The
men of the _Choising_ told us afterward 'We couldn't make out what
that meant, those stark-naked fellows all cheering.' The sea was
too high, and we had to wait two days before we could board the
_Choising_ on December 16, 1914. We took very little with us; the
schooner was taken in tow. In the afternoon we sank the _Ayesha_ and
were all very sad. The good old _Ayesha_ had served us faithfully
for six weeks. The log showed that we had made 1,709 sea miles
under sail since leaving Keeling. She wasn't at all rotten and
unseaworthy, as they had told me, but nice and white and dry inside.
I had grown fond of the boat, on which I could practice my old
sailing maneuvers. The only trouble was that the sails would go
to pieces every now and then, because they were so old.

"But anyway, she went down quite properly. We had bored a hole