Archibald Robbins

A Journal Archibald Robbins

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.