Name of book about 19th C (?) boat that ran aground on the coast of W Africa. Sailors captive in Sahara?

Question

I rented this book from Books on Tape and have forgotten the title. It was a non-fictional account of sailors who were captured after their boat ran aground along the coast of West Africa. I think this was 19th Century, but am not sure. The sailors that survived the boat accident spent a year or more with nomadic tribes in the desert nearly dying of starvation and exhaustion.

Answer 1

I have found two books that might be the one you're looking for.

1)The Narrative of Robert Adams, an American Sailor Who Was Wrecked on the Western Coast of Africa in the Year 1810 by Robert Adams

This first one seems to have recently been reprinted and renamed in 2005, The Narrative of Robert Adams, A Barbary Captive

Slavery -- Sahara.
Adams, Robert, Sailor -- Travel -- Africa.
Sahara -- Description and travel.
Tombouctou (Mali) -- Description and travel.

2) Sufferings in Africa: The Astonishing Account of a New England Sea Captain Enslaved by North African Arabs by James Riley

In 1815, a young American merchant marine captain, James Riley, was shipwrecked near Morocco. He and part of his crew made it ashore and were captured by nomadic Arabs and enslaved. For over a year they endured hardship until ransomed by an Englishman and returned to the US. Riley's story sold one million copies when published in 1817 and is credited with opening Abraham Lincoln's eyes to the evils of slavery, at least from a white American perspective. Perhaps the following passage is one reason why: "He [another slave owned by the Arabs, but black] would poke our sore flesh with a sharp stick, to make sport, and show the Arabs what miserable beings we were, who could not even bear the rays of the sun (the image of God, as they term it) to shine upon us." No index or notes. This is a reprint of a 1965 edition. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)