Excerpt from 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 Respecting my conversations with the Arabs, I'have put dove what I knew at the time to be their exact meaning, as nearly as I could translate their words and signs combined. I had, previously, learned the French and Spanish languages, both by grammar and practice, and had also been accustomed to hear spoken the Russian and different dialects of the German, as well as the Portuguese, ltalianxand several other languages, so that my ear had become fami liar with their sounds and pronunciation. Perceiving an affinity between the Arabian and Spanish, I soon began to learn the names of common things, in Arabic, and to compare them in my mind with those I had met with in Turkish and other Oriental history. I had no hope of ever being redeemed, unless I could make myself under stood, and 1 therefore took the utmost care to treasure up every word and sentence I heard spoken by the Arabs, to reflect on their bearing, and to find out their true meaning, by which means, in the course of a very few days, I was enabled to comprehend the general tenor and drift of their ordinary conversation, and to find out the whole meaning of their signs and gestures. My four companions, however, could scarcely comprehend a single word of Arabic, even after they were redeemed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.