A narrative of the shipwreck of the Oswego, on the coast of South Barbary, ... London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown (printed by Andrew Strahan), 1818. 4to. 20th-century tan goatskin morocco.

XVI, 372 pp.First British edition, published in the same year as the first American edition, of a detailed narrative of the wreck of the 260 ton American ship Oswego off the coast of Africa near the Canary Islands on 28 March 1800 and the capture of the captain and crew by a party of seven armed Islamic hunters armed with guns and daggers. It was written by the ship's Quaker captain Judah Paddock, whose detailed description of their months in captivity provides a wealth of information about Islamic culture in a region where few Europeans or Americans had ever ventured. Their captors forced them to march inland through the desert for five or six days, where they sold the white prisoners to nomadic shepherds but chose to keep the two black prisoners for their own use and departed with them. With minor foxing (mostly in the title-page and final leaf), some worm damage in the gutter fold of the first and last quire, and a few leaves with a corner torn off, but still in good condition. Binding with a small worm hole and a few superficial scratches and scuff marks, but also good. A fascinating and informative story of life in the captivity of nomads in the western Sahara.l C. Carmer, The Hudson (1989), pp. 123-126; Gay 1260.