Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival
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———. “Selling Captain Riley: North African Slavery and American Readers, 1817-1859.” Paper presented to the BrANCH conference, the annual meeting of the British American Nineteenth Century Historians, Madingley Hall, Cambridge, October 5, 2003.
Riley, James. 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. New York: James Riley, 1817.
———. An Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce. 2nd ed. Hartford: James Riley, 1817.
———. An Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce. 3rd ed. New York: Collins & Co., 1818.
———. “Captain Riley’s Narrative.” Connecticut Courant. March 26, 1816.
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———. Letter to Benjamin Silliman. July 19, 1810. Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
———. Letter to John F. Watson. July 3, 1824. Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Fremont, Ohio.
———. Loss of the American Brig Commerce, Wrecked on the Western Coast of Africa, in the Month of August, 1815, With an Account of Tombuctoo, and of the Hitherto Undiscovered Great City of Wassanah. London: J. Murray, 1817.
———. Naufrage du Brigantin Américain Le Commerce Perdou Sur la Côte Occidentale d’Afrique, au mois d’août 1815. Paris: Le Normant, Imprimeur-Libraire, 1818.
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Acknowledgments
My thanks to everyone at Little, Brown who made the writing of this book possible, especially to Michael Pietsch and Geoff Shandler, whose guidance and insightful readings helped in so many ways.
As always, my wife, Jessica, provided invaluable support. She and friend Charles Slack helped shape the narrative even before it reached Little, Brown. Their editorial comments, inspiration, and many other contributions to this book cannot be measured, nor can my gratitude to them. Likewise, my agent, Jody Rein, provided support and advice, upon which I depend.
John Harland, M.D., author of Seamanship in the Age of Sail, lent his invaluable understanding of all matters maritime. Historian emeritus Donald J. Ratcliffe, of the University of Durham, England, generously shared his singular knowledge of the publishing of Captain Riley’s memoir and his wisdom on other topics. Mohamed el Mansour, professor of history at Université Mohammed V, in Rabat, Morocco, and Piotr Kostrzewski, director of Cross Cultural Adventures, answered my exhaustive questions about Moroccan and Saharan culture, language, and history with unceasing good cheer. Gus Robbins, a descendant of Archibald Robbins’s brother, kindly shared his time and allowed me to see some of the family heirlooms.
My gratitude goes to National Geographic Adventure editor Jim Meigs and the editors of that magazine for supporting my research in Africa and for serializing the book in the pages of their magazine. Jim Meigs and my friend Logan Ward both read the manuscript and offered up useful suggestions for fine-tuning. (The Ward family also kindly took in the King family in the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel, allowing work on the book to continue smoothly while all was dark in Richmond.)
My assistant and researcher Alexandra Benwell pursued leads to the far ends of the earth. Others who contributed to the research effort include Kenneth Buckbee, Diane Cameron, Jane Hines, Harlan Jessup, Sarah Raper Larenaudie, Elford Messer, John Morgan, Valérie Rodger, and Nancy Steed.
To the many other scholars and specialists whose knowledge enriches this book, my sincere thanks; they include Tony Hodges, co-author of Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara; Daniel Schroeter, professor of history at the University of California, Irvine; Gene DeFoliart, professor emeritus of medical entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; camel expert Ahmed Tibary, assistant professor of theriogenology at Washington State Unive
rsity; Mohammed Sawaie, professor of Arabic, University of Virginia; Barry Cook of the British Museum; Peter Schlegel, M.D., Cornell University medical school; Warner V. Slack, M.D., professor of medicine and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School; Jo Benwell, nutrition lecturer, ret., Farnham College; Maryam and Nancy Abeiderrahmane of the Tiviski camel dairy in Mauritania; Read McGehee III, M.D., of the Virginia Eye Institute; Madia Thomson; Ellsworth Grant; Mark Snow; the Reverend Greg Jones, St. James’s Church, Richmond, Virginia; and Pastor Don Hay, Congregational Church of Eastford, Connecticut.
In helping me reconstruct weather and tidal conditions, the following were essentially helpful: Bernard Ducarme of the International Centre for Earth Tides at the Royal Observatory of Belgium; Joseph M. Moran of the American Meteorological Society; Commander John Page, Royal Navy; Malcolm Walker of the Royal Meteorological Society; and Philip Woodworth and David Blackman of the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory.
Kenneth Wilson of the Science Museum of Virginia helped me capture astronomical details, and Roger Key of the British Geological Survey shed light on the nature of Saharan terrain.
The staffs of many libraries and historical societies were instrumental in helping me locate books, newspapers, and documents, especially Dave Grabarek at the Library of Virginia. Also, Nancy Milnor and Martha H. Smart of the Connecticut Historical Society; Allison Guiness of the Connecticut River Museum; Stephen Shaw of the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the Revolutionary War; also in Connecticut, Brenda Milkofsky of the Wethersfield Historical Society; Wendy Schnur of the G. W. Blunt White Library at Mystic Seaport; Karl Stofko, municipal historian of East Haddam Historical Society; Terry Crescimanno of Cromwell Belden Public Library.
Elsewhere, Dennis Beiso of the Gibraltar Archives; Robert Henderson of the General Society of the War of 1812; Josh Graml of the Mariner’s Museum; Michael T. Moore and Susan Abbott of the National Archives and Records Administration; Paul Adamthwaite, Ph.D., of the Archives and Collections Society; David Clendinning of the Robert Manning Strozier Library of Florida State University; Kevin Windsor of the Lundy’s Lane Historical Museum; Nan J. Card of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center; Habte M. Teclemariam of the Library of Congress; and the staff of the New-York Historical Society, which holds Captain Riley’s manuscript.
To my travel companions, camel handlers, and camp hands on the research expedition through Western Sahara—Claudia D’Andrea, Remi Benali, J. P. Kang, Ted Lawrence, Jouwad, Hussein, Ali, Mohammed el Arab, Karim, and Achmed—thanks for your help and your forbearance on an often difficult adventure. Know that you contributed in spirit and body to this telling of Riley’s and Robbins’s journey. Tech wizards J. P. Kang and Lucas Krost helped me make cool show-and-tell.
Finally, I’d like to thank Little, Brown assistant editor Liz Nagle, who made sure everything got to where it was going, and copyediting pros Peggy Freudenthal, Steve Lamont, and Anne Montague made sure it read well when it came back.
Again, thanks to all.
Dean King
About the Author
Dean King is the author of ten books, including the acclaimed biography Patrick O’Brian: A Life Revealed and the Aubrey-Maturin companion books A Sea of Words and Harbors and High Seas. He is the series editor for the Heart of Oak Sea Classics, published by Henry Holt, and a contributor to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History. He has written for many publications, including Men’s Journal, Esquire, New York magazine, and the New York Times. He lives with his wife and four daughters in Richmond, Virginia.