34 MY MEMOIRS

professional consuls. When we were abroad with the Friedrich Karl in 1872 we had orders to " explore/' to report on all places both as to what they were suited for and what economic importance they might have for us. I still remember how I reconnoitred the island of Porto Grande in the Cape Verd Islands; it was almost barren, high rocks with a few scattered palms, but it was the natural coaling-station between Cape Town, Europe, and South America.

During our visit to Curagoa we got the impression that the purchase of the island was being considered; and it is possible that our next year's commission, a voyage to Hawaii, was connected with something similar. But in the seventies Germany did not understand such symptoms. Moreover, the shameful fact that we had to let the bulk of our increasing population emigrate abroad, as we were not yet in a position to export goods instead of human beings, stood in pe-~-i:~- —4.~~~4. ±~ ™«. —i^ical reputation. Stosch

—^erial questions that were ^ w^* ^^ sea, particularly the development ot our stunted mercantile marine. He met with a good deal of opposition, but succeeded in setting the standard for shipping affairs in the Federal Council; he made use of the Hydrographic Office, the Naval Observatory, and of our relations with the Hanseatic Ambassadors in order to strengthen his position. Sailors' schools, in which the navy was directly interested on account of its supply of recruits, pilots, tonnage questions, lighthouses, surveys, the fisheries of