The rise of Germany as an empire in 1872 and the weakening of the Sultanate of Sulu and Spain converged in Jolo through the friendship of Captain Herman Leopold Schuck, an adventurous German sea captain and Jamalul Alam, the famous sultan of Sulu. This work chronicles that friendship as it to seeks to better understand how a Prussian from Upper Silesia, steeped in Germanic culture and driven by a lucrative trading relationship with the sultan, developed a fascination with Tausug culture.