by Dean King
3. Riley goes on to observe that he found this belief that the camel was a sacred beast to be prevalent throughout the region. My experience as I traced Riley's route in 2001 substantiated this observation. On my first day on a camel, as we were running on the beach, my saddle began sliding to the side, eventually dumping me on the sand— not far, I might add, from a long stretch of rocks that could well have "dashed out" my brains. The first thing Mohammed el Arab, a camel-racing instructor and my guide, said to me was "That was your fault. Why didn't you jump?" Shaken and incredulous, I did not respond at first. He then quipped, good-naturedly, "It doesn't matter. Those who fall from camels never get hurt." (return to text)
Chapter 19: The Road to Swearah
1. Writing earlier than Jackson and Riley, Lempriere explains that the coastal path was through "one continued expanse of wild, mountainous, and rocky country. . . . Our progress indeed could be compared to nothing but the continual ascending and descending of a series of rough and uneven stone steps. At one place in particular the descent was so steep, and the road so choaked [sic] up with large pieces of stone, that we were all obliged to dismount and walk a full mile and a half with the utmost caution and difficulty, before we could mount again" (pp. 713-14). (return to text)
2. Salt pans can still be found today in the hills between Agadir and Essaouira (Swearah). Techniques and conditions have changed little in two hundred years. Families live in windowless earthen huts on the perimeter of the pans; men, women, and children all work in some part of the salt extraction process. (return to text)
Epilogue: Homecomings
1. In an October 1817 review of Riley's Narrative, the London literary journal Monthly Review states that "we do not see any reason to discredit the general story: it containing nothing to impeach its own veracity, but much to corroborate it; and it is externally supported by the printed correspondence of those individuals who procured the author's redemption," but the critic notes that the "description of their sufferings, indeed, exceeds any thing of a similar nature which we recollect to have read; and they seem to be more than any human beings could inflict or any endure." The drastic loss of weight Riley reported, the writer adds, "makes us almost doubt the author's accuracy, though we do not suspect an intentional error." Modern physicians would agree that while it is possible for a 240-pound man to lose 150 pounds over time, to have done it in less than three months is improbable. Riley was convinced of it, however, and willing to risk his credibility on it. (return to text)
2. Riley mistakenly reports that Porter was owned by bel Cossim in Wednoon; Robbins says Porter was owned by a different wealthy man. (return to text)
3. William Riley's claim that "more than a million" Americans had read Riley's narrative (Sequel, p. iv) has often been misconstrued to mean that one million copies were published. The error can be traced at least as far back as Gerald McMurtry's article "The Influence of Riley's Narrative Upon Abraham Lincoln" (Indiana Magazine of History, 1934). Even if William Riley's bold estimate of a million readers was accurate, the number of copies purchased would have been far smaller, especially when library copies are taken into account. In trying to accurately assess the numbers printed as well as to determine the impact of Riley's book, historian Donald Ratcliffe cites nineteenth-century library records showing a high rate of readership for the title in certain regions, anecdotal evidence of Riley's fame, and the great extent to which his narrative saturated the public. Ratcliffe concludes that even the claim of a million readers was overstated, though that many people may have read some version of Riley's story either in his book or in various periodicals.
In the only biography authorized by Abraham Lincoln, John L. Scripps's Life of Abraham Lincoln, Scripps wrote that after the Bible, Aesop's Fables, and Pilgrims's Progress in Lincoln's early reading "came the Life of Franklin, Weems's Washington, and Riley's Narrative" (p. 3).(return to text)
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Acknowledgments
My thanks to everyone at Little, Brown who made the writing of this book possible, especially to Michael Pietsch and Geoff Shandler, whose guidance and insightful readings helped in so many ways.