A Journal Comprising an Account of the Loss of the Brig Commerce

The Commerce was a Connecticut-based American merchant sailing ship that ran aground in 1815 at Cape Bojador, off the coast of what is now Western Sahara. This is the story of one of the crew who survived the shipwreck and who went on to become a slave in one of the local tribes who captured them. Captain James Riley and crew were attacked and ransacked on shore by Sahrawi natives. The crew escaped by rowboat but when their supplies ran low they again went to shore. They were taken captive by nomads of the Oulad Bou Sbaa tribe. They spent months dehydrated, starved and suffering brutality. This is an account of that time.