The Boy Slaves, by Captain Mayne Reid.
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This is an excellent book, telling of the adventures of three midshipmen
and a much older sailor from a British warship that goes aground off the
coast of Africa, well offshore, and sinks with all hands. However these
four find themselves afloat on a spar, which they paddle with their
hands for several days until they reach the shore of Africa. Shortly
after this they are taken prisoner by some Arabs, who intend to take
them north to a town where they can be sold as slaves.
The book deals with their adventures as they are driven north to be
sold. In those days Arab pirate ships, known as Barbary pirates, and
also Algerine pirates, used to capture European vessels and make their
white crews and passengers into slaves, demanding ransoms from their
families. Even if the ransom was received, the captors usually
pretended it hadn't been. The practice had been going on for centuries,
and was terminated in 1816 when Admiral Lord Exmouth attacked Algiers,
and obtained the release of 1300 white slaves. Following this the
French were charged with the responsibility of keeping the Arabs of
North Africa in order. The date of 1816 is wrongly given as 1856 on
page xi of Guy Pocock's introduction to the Everyman Edition of the
book.
The audiobook takes about ten hours to play.
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THE BOY SLAVES, BY CAPTAIN MAYNE REID.