Subsequently, seven other chiefs on seven other islands signed a treaty in German and Marshallese and a final copy witnessed by Rötger on November 1 was sent to the German Foreign Office. The Germans erected a sign declaring a "Imperial German Protectorate" at Jaluit. It has been speculated that the crisis over the Carolines with Spain, which almost provoked a war, was in fact "a feint to cover the acquisition of the Marshall Islands", which went almost unnoticed at the time, despite the islands being the largest source of copra in Micronesia. Spain sold the islands to Germany in 1884 through papal mediation.