Loss of the American Brig Commerce

Abstract

The following Narrative of my misfortunes and sufferings, and my consequent travels· and observations in Africa, is submitted to the perusal of a candid and an enlightened public with much diffidence, particularly as I write without having had the advantages derived from a~ academic ·edu-cation, and being quite unskilled in the art of composing for the press. My aim has been merely to record in plain and unvarnished language, scenes in which I was a principal actor, of real and heart-appalling distresses. The very deep and indelible impression made in my mind by the extraordinary circumstances attending my ~ate ship-wreck and the consequent miserable captivity and wretched-ness of myself and my surviving shipmates, and believing that a knowledge of many of these incidents might prove useful and interesting to the world, as wen as peculiarly instructive to my sea-faring brethren, together with the strong and repeated solicitations of many valuable friends, among whom was the Honourable James Munroe, Secretary of State, and several distinguished members of Con-gress; urged by these considerations, and with a view of being enabled by my labours to afford some relief to the surviving sufferers and the destitute families of that' part of my late crew whose lot it was to perish in Africa, or who are still groaning out the little remains of their existence in the cruel bonds of Barbarian slavery, I was induced to undertake the very arduous and difficult task (though labouring under sllch disadvantages of preparing and publishing a work that proves to be so large and expensive