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Crusoe finds a Dying Goat
Justyne, Leitch, Macquoid, Morgan, Pasquier, & Thomas
Engravers: Butterworth and Heath
1863-64
Wood-engraving
22.1 cm high by 14.2 cm wide framed.
Cassell's Robinson Crusoe, page 101.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock, where, by mere accident (I would say, if I did not see abundant reason to ascribe all such things now to Providence), I was cutting down some thick branches of trees to make charcoal; and before I go on I must observe the reason of my making this charcoal, which was this—I was afraid of making a smoke about my habitation, as I said before; and yet I could not live there without baking my bread, cooking my meat, &c.; so I contrived to burn some wood here, as I had seen done in England, under turf, till it became chark or dry coal: and then putting the fire out, I preserved the coal to carry home, and perform the other services for which fire was wanting, without danger of smoke. But this is by-the-bye. While I was cutting down some wood here, I perceived that, behind a very thick branch of low brushwood or underwood, there was a kind of hollow place: I was curious to look in it; and getting with difficulty into the mouth of it, I found it was pretty large, that is to say, sufficient for me to stand upright in it, and perhaps another with me: but I must confess to you that I made more haste out than I did in, when looking farther into the place, and which was perfectly dark, I saw two broad shining eyes of some creature, whether devil or man I knew not, which twinkled like two stars; the dim light from the cave’s mouth shining directly in, and making the reflection. However, after some pause I recovered myself, and began to call myself a thousand fools, and to think that he that was afraid to see the devil was not fit to live twenty years in an island all alone; and that I might well think there was nothing in this cave that was more frightful than myself. Upon this, plucking up my courage, I took up a firebrand, and in I rushed again, with the stick flaming in my hand: I had not gone three steps in before I was almost as frightened as before; for I heard a very loud sigh, like that of a man in some pain, and it was followed by a broken noise, as of words half expressed, and then a deep sigh again. I stepped back, and was indeed struck with such a surprise that it put me into a cold sweat, and if I had had a hat on my head, I will not answer for it that my hair might not have lifted it off. But still plucking up my spirits as well as I could, and encouraging myself a little with considering that the power and presence of God was everywhere, and was able to protect me, I stepped forward again, and by the light of the firebrand, holding it up a little over my head, I saw lying on the ground a monstrous, frightful old he-goat, just making his will, as we say, and gasping for life, and, dying, indeed, of mere old age. I stirred him a little to see if I could get him out, and he essayed to get up, but was not able to raise himself; and I thought with myself he might even lie there — for if he had frightened me, so he would certainly fright any of the savages, if any of them should be so hardy as to come in there while he had any life in him. [Chapter XII, "A Cave Retreat," pp. 119-20]
Although the earlier illustrators Thomas Stothard (1790) and George Cruikshank (1831) had both examined the subject of the dying goat in the cave, the Cassell's house-illustrator has made much of the exotic or foreign nature of the space, emphasizing the stalagmites and stalactites and rendering the whole as a dark plate in the manner of Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz' of Dickens fame). Since the reader has already encountered an image of a curious rather than a terrified Crusoe calmly studying the elderly goat at his feet, the illustration's placement two pages ahead of the passage realised undermines the suspense. But the ornate border of fruits, leaves, ferns lends an almost mystical mediaevalism to the composition, which exists inside a niche and below ground level (as indicated by the young goats, upper left and right, grazing on the surface). The torch gutters, highlighting in chiaroscuro the goat's forehead and the points of the limestone formations that contribute a certain weirdness to the scene.
Left: Thomas Stothard's 1790 realisation of the solitary and somewhat nervous castaway's encountering the goat in the cave: Robinson Crusoe terrified at the dying goat (Chapter IV, "First Few Weeks on the Island," copper-engraving). Right: George Cruikshank's other scene involving the island's goats, Crusoe discovers a dying goat in a cave (1831). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by himself. With upwards of One Hundred Illustrations. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863-64.
Last modified 14 March 2018