There is evidence to show that von Spee picked up naval reservists for his squadron at Valparaiso, but there is none to confirm the rumour that he proposed to occupy the Falkland Islands, retaining a garrison there after they had been captured. He could never have hoped to occupy or to hold them for any length of time. Baron von Maltzhan, the manager of a large sheep farm in Chile, was selected to take command of an expedition consisting of an armed force of some 500 men, whose function was to assist in the capture of the Falkland Islands, but not necessarily to remain on as a permanent garrison. The damage that can be done to merchant shipping and trade by a single hostile ship has been demonstrated on more than one occasion during this war. If, therefore, it is presumed that the revised German programme was to capture the Falkland Islands, thus aiming a blow at British prestige, and then to scatter in the manner suggested so as to hamper or cripple our trade with the New World as long as possible, it will then be seen how opportune a victory this was for the British nation. Had von Spee escaped being brought to action, it seems probable that he would have endeavoured to work his way home in preference to the alternative of internment. In brief, then, this is a rough outline of events that "might"--one could almost use the word "would"--have taken place, had not such prompt steps been taken by the Admiralty to meet him wherever he went by superior forces. Von Spee knew he was being cornered, and is reported to have said so at Valparaiso. If additional proof of the decision of the Germans to bring about this war, whatever the cost, were required, it is to be found in the testimony of a captured German reservist, who has already been mentioned in this book. He was German interpreter to the Law Courts at Sydney. This man told a naval surgeon who was examining him after he had been rescued, when he was still in a very shaken condition and could have had no object in lying, that he had been called up by the German Admiralty on _June 26th_. In company with several other reservists, therefore, he took passage in a sailing ship bound for Valparaiso, where he ultimately joined the _Leipzig_. This tale is corroborated by the fact that von Spee put into Valparaiso to pick up naval reservists in accordance with instructions from Germany, which perhaps may have been the cause of his delay in coming round the Horn after defeating Admiral Cradock. Other prisoners informed us that they had been cruising up and down the Chilean coast in order to meet a storeship from Valparaiso with these reservists on board, so as to avoid being reported. The latter, however, never turned up, so the Germans were obliged to put in there a second time.