[1][2] A participant in the January Uprising of Poles against Russian rule, Kubary ultimately fled to Germany after it failed,[2][3] and in 1869 he signed a five-year contract to collect for the Museum Godeffroy in Hamburg.

[1][2][3] He first spent six months living in Apia, Samoa and making trips to Fiji and Tonga while also learning Samoan and sending items back to the museum.

[2][3] He led a successful response to an influenza epidemic in Palau, which created good relations between himself and the Palauans and assisted his ethnographic research.

[2] A small amount was salvaged, and after more collecting on Jaluit and Samoa he sent 23 crates of material back to the museum.

[1][2][3] While collecting in Truk, he was informed that the Museum Godeffroy had released him from his contract due to a shortage of funds.