Who is this person?

[Gene C]

A good trivia question.

Available on Internet Archive (copyright 1818)
This later edition has larger print

https://archive.org/details/authenticnar..._0/page/n7

"To The Reader
The following Narrative of my misfortunes and sufferings, and my consequent travels and observations in Africa,
is submitted to the perusal of a candid and an enlightened public, with much diffidence, particularly as I write
without having had the advantages that may be derived from an Academic education, and being quite unskilled
in the art of composing for the press. My aim has been merely to record, in plain and unvarnished language,
scenes in which I was a principal actor, of real and heartappalling distresses. The very deep and indelible
impression made on my mind by the extraordinary circumstances attending my late shipwreck, and the
miserable captivity of myself and my surviving shipmates, and believing that a knowledge of many of
these incidents might prove useful and interesting to the world, as well as peculiarly instructive to my
sea-faring brethren; together with the strong and repeated solicitations of many of my valuable friends,
among whom was the honourable James Monroe, Secretary of State, and several distinguished members of Congress :
these considerations, together with a view of being enabled by my labours to afford some relief to the surviving sufferers,
and the desti- tute families of that part of my late crew, whose lot it was to perish in Africa,
or who are still groaning out the little remains of their existence in the cruel
bonds of barbarian slavery, have induced me to un- dertake the very arduous and difficult task of preparing
and publishing a work so large and expensive. "