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An Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce
An Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce Author:James Riley Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: would have set us into the Mediterranean, and we must have inevitably perished before morning, but we were spared, in order to suffer a severer doom, and miserie... more »s worse than death, on the barbarous shores of Africa. We now took on board part of a cargo of brandies and wines, and some dollars, say about two thousand, and an old man named Antonio Michel, a native of New-Orleans, who had previously been wrecked on the island of Teneriffe, and was recommended to my charity by Mr. Gavino, who at that time exercised the functions of American Consul at Gibraltar. CHAPTER III. textit{Voyage from Gibraltar towards the Cape de Verd Islands, including the shipwreck of the brig Commerce on the coast of Africa. We set sail from the bay of Gibraltar on the 23d of August, 1815, intending to go by way of the Cape de Verd Islands, to complete the lading of the vessel with salt. We passed Cape Spartel on the morning of the 24th, giving it a birth of from ten to twelve leagues, and steered off to the W. S. W. I intended to make the Canary Islands, and pass between Teneriffe and Palma, having a fair wind ; but it being very thick and foggy weather, though we got two observations at noon, neither could be much depended upon. On account of the fog, we saw no land, and found, by good meridian altitudes on the twenty- eighth, that we were in the latitude of 27. 30. N. having differed our latitude by the force of current, one hundred and twenty miles ; thus passing the Canaries without seeing any of them. I concluded we must have passed through the intended passage without discovering the land on either side, particivlarly, as it was in the night, which was very dark, and black as pitch ; nor could I believe otherwise from having had a fair wind all the way, and having steered one course ever ...« less