Recounting the wreck of the brig Commerce, the subsequent captivity of its crew, and the author’s enslavement among the Arabs

Originally printed in 1817 and reprinted here by The Stinehour Press with an introduction by Francis Brown

Northeast-Kingdom Publishers

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. Robbins spent months dehydrated, starved, and suffering brutality. This is his account of his captivity and escape home to freedom.