Mason was born in New York City on May 8, 1848. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1864 and passed the examination for lieutenant on April 2, 1872. On September 1, 1872, he sailed from Philadelphia in the U.S.S. Omaha on a cruise to the Pacific. In Valparaiso, Chile, on February 14, 1873, he transferred to the U.S.S. Pensacola, a surveying vessel. In that ship, he visited other South American ports and arrived in Hawaii on February 13, 1875. After seven months in Hawaiian waters, he returned to the United States.

The journal gives a day-by-day account of Mason's cruise onboard the Omaha and Pensacola, prefaced by an outline of his previous career.

Autumn Leaves, renamed Vision from Vol.42, is a publication of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The articles mainly concern the work of missionaries of the Reorganized Church in Hawaii, Tahiti and the Tuamotu Archipelago. For items from Vols. 1-21, see PMB 94. For other publications of the Reorganized Church see also PMB 92, 93 and 100 for The Saints Herald; PMB 104 for Zion's Ensign; PMB 105 for Journal of History and PMB 106 for Times and Seasons.

The Manuscript Mission Histories are, in fact, mainly collections of chronologically arranged newspaper clippings, with some typescript entries, concerning the work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Pacific Islands. The histories cover the following territories and periods: French Polynesia (1849-1959), Hawaii (1850-1959), Samoa (1871-1959), Tonga (1891-1959).

The Danish Consul at the time was C. Hedemann.

Diplomatic correspondence including some material on Danish residents in Hawaii and their wartime status. The correspondence is itemized at the beginning of the film.