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Crusoe sleeping in his Boat
Justyne, Leitch, Macquoid, Morgan, Pasquier, & Thomas
Engravers: Butterworth and Heath
1863-64
Wood-engraving
17.5 cm high by 14.3 cm wide, framed.
Cassell's Robinson Crusoe, page 129.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
I took [from the wrecked Spanish ship (plate 34)] a fire-shovel and tongs, which I wanted extremely, as also two little brass kettles, a copper pot to make chocolate, and a gridiron; and with this cargo, and the dog, I came away, the tide beginning to make home again—and the same evening, about an hour within night, I reached the island again, weary and fatigued to the last degree. I reposed that night in the boat [Chapter XIII, "Wreck of a Spanish Ship," p. 130]
Here the illustrator (presumably James Abbott Pasquier, "A. P.") distinguishes the dog from Crusoe's usual companion by making him an entirely different breed and giving him a patchy coat. Although the text intimates that Crusoe found little of practical use to salvage, the illustration depicts his small boat loaded to gunwales. Crusoe has taken the following material from the boat: a gridiron, several firearms, a barrel, a seaman's trunk (behind the sleeping Crusoe), and some planking. The illustrator, perhaps for the sake of economy, has not included the shoes, stockings, shirts, powder-flasks, and three bags of Spanish coins. For one who has just witnessed grisly scenes aboard the derelict vessel Crusoe sleeps soundly. The text reminds post-eighteeth-century readers that the Caribbean served as the waterway between Spain and a whole series of Spanish colonies in Latin America.
Above: George Cruikshank's caricatural wood-engraving of Crusoe's initial exploratory voyage, Crusoe circumnavigating the island (1831). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
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 15 March 2018