% 
14 
pfercent royalty from the sale of the skins. (letter from Max Schlemmer to 
G. R. Carter, dated 1J December 1904). 
/ 
X 
His letter 
includes a list of the numbers and species he wished 
/ 
to kill each season. The total, excluding Great Frigatebirds, all of which 
he intended to kill each season, was an unbelievable 21,800 birds. The list 
included 1000 Laysan Rails, 100 Laysan Honey-eaters, and 100 Laysan Miller- 
birds, three species which are now extinct. 
* .. " ' . i n 
Schlemmer's letter, plus newspaper accounts of the bird slaughter by 
Japanese feather poachers, came to the attention of William Dutcher, President 
. I 
of the Rational Association of Audubon Societies. Dutcher and William A. 
Bryan led the drive to stir up interest in creating a Federal refuge. Thus, 
President Theodore Roosevelt signed Executive Order 1019 in February 1909, 
/ 
placing all the islands from Wihoa to Kure, With the exception of Midway, 
under Federal protection. 
In January 1910 the Thetis, under the command of Captain W. V. E. Jacobs, 
was sent to the Leewards to investigate reports of Renewed Japanese feather 
poaching. An armed boarding party was sent ashore at Laysan on l6 January and 
arrested 19 Japanese found there. Large quantities of feathers, wings and 
stuffed birds were confiscated (Log of the Revenue Cutter Thetis for 16 January 
1910). Captain Jacobs also confiscated several documents; an agent's commission 
from the Pacific Guano and Fertilizer Company to Max Schlemmer dated 6 May 1904, 
a police constable's commission for the county of Oahu and the western group of 
\ 
islands dated 13 May 1907, and a contract between Schlemmer and Geukichi 
p 1 y. 
Xamanochi of Tokyo for the rental of Laysan and Lisianski and a definition of 
i 
I 
the conditions linden which the islands were dented, ( ibid * for 17 January 1910). 
• ! 
