An Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce: Wrecked on the Western Coast of Africa, in the Month of August, 1815. With an Account of the Sufferings of Her Surviving Officers and Crew, who Were Enslaved by the Wandering Arabs on the Great African Desart, Or Zahahrah; and Observations Historical, Geographical, &c., Made During the Travels of the Author, While a Slave to the Arabs, and in the Empire of Morocco |
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appeared Arabs Argan oil arms arrived asses Atlantic Ocean Atlas mountains bank barley beach boat called camels Cape Cape Spartel caravan carry Clark cloth coast companions Consul covered crew desart distance dollars drink eight feet four Gibraltar goats ground guns haick hand head Horace horses hundred inhabitants Islands James Riley Jews journey kind land legs live locusts manner masters Mediterranean Sea miles milk Mogadore Moorish Moorish empire Moors morning Morocco mountains mounted mules Muley Ibrahim nearly night obliged passed Rabat Rais bel Cossim ride river rocks salt sand hills Savage scimitar Seid Sheick shore shrubs side Sidi Hamet Sidi Mohammed skin slaves soon stones stopped Sultan surf Suse Swearah Tangier tent thick told Tombuctoo took town travelled valley vessel walls whole Widnoon Willshire wind women wreck yards
Popular passages
Page 312 - Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, "Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears." But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share and his coulter and his axe and his mattock.
Page viii - The sea roared : and the stormy wind lifted up the waves thereof. We were carried up as it were to heaven, and then down again into the deep : our soul melted within us because of trouble ; Then cried we unto thee, O Lord : and thou didst deliver us out of our distress.
Page 273 - ... was almost as hot as coals of fire) six days, there began to blow a fierce wind from the south-east, called the wind of the Desert, bringing death and destruction with it : we could not advance nor retreat, so we took the loading from off our camels, and piled it in one great heap, and made the camels lie down. The dust flew so thick that we could not see each other nor our camels, and were scarcely able to breathe/ — so we laid down with our faces in the dust, and cried aloud with one voice...
Page 416 - After they had gone through with their religious ceremonies most devoutly, they appeared to take an eternal farewell of each other : this done, one of them retired from the room, and shut the door tight after him. The Arab within seemed to be in dreadful distress — I could observe his heart throb and his bosom heave most violently; and he cried out very loudly,
Page 49 - ... buried, containing about four hundred dollars. They also contrived to get together a few pieces of salt pork, a live pig, weighing about twenty pounds, about four pounds of figs, a spar for the boat's mast, a jib, and a main sail. Every thing being ready, the crew went to prayers; and the wind ceasing to blow, the boat was launched through the breakers.
Page 286 - Moslemin companions who could understand him, (for I could not,) that he was going to set out in a few days with sixty boats, and to carry five hundred slaves down the river, first to the southward, and then to the westward, where they should come to the great water, and sell them to pale people who came there in great boats, and brought muskets, and powder, and tobacco, and blue cloth, and knives, &c. — he said it was a great way, and would take him three moons to get there, and he should be gone...
Page 118 - ... was formed for holding it, appeared to be chalky, soft, and yielding. We descended this bank, and after preparing the camels, we were mounted thereon, and proceeded as before, but along to the eastward, in this arm of the sea's bed. I call it an arm of the sea, because there could be no doubt in the mind of any one who should view it, that these high banks were worn and washed by water ; they were from six to eight or ten miles distant from each other, and the level bottom was encrusted with...
Page 63 - ... he sickened at the sight, — his spirits fainted within him, — he fell senseless to the earth, and for some time knew not where he was : 'despair (he says) now seized on me, and I resolved to cast myself into the sea as soon as I could reach it, and put an end to my life and miseries together.
Page 418 - ... anointed his numerous wounds with a little of the same liquid; and yet no sign of life appeared. I thought he was dead in earnest; his neck and veins were exceedingly swollen ; when his comrade, taking up the lifeless trunk in his arms, brought it out into the open air, and continued the operation of blowing for several minutes, before a sign of life appeared : at length he gasped, and after a time recovered so far as to be able to speak. The swellings...
Page 240 - The path we were now obliged to follow, was not more than two feet wide in one place, and on our left it broke off in a precipice of some hundred feet deep to the sea— the smallest slip of the mule or camel would have plunged it and its rider down the rocks to inevitable and instant death, as there was no bush or other thing to lay hold of by which a man might save his life.