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Crusoe welcomed by the Spaniard
Matt Somerville Morgan
Engravers: Butterworth and Heath
1863-64
Wood-engraving
18 cm high by 13.5 cm wide, partially framed.
Cassell's Robinson Crusoe, page 229.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
But this is a digression: I return to my landing. It would be needless to take notice of all the ceremonies and civilities that the Spaniards received me with. The first Spaniard, whom, as I said, I knew very well, was he whose life I had saved. He came towards the boat, attended by one more, carrying a flag of truce also; and he not only did not know me at first, but he had no thoughts, no notion of its being me that was come, till I spoke to him. “Seignior,” said I, in Portuguese, “do you not know me?” At which he spoke not a word, but giving his musket to the man that was with him, threw his arms abroad, saying something in Spanish that I did not perfectly hear, came forward and embraced me, telling me he was inexcusable not to know that face again that he had once seen, as of an angel from heaven sent to save his life; he said abundance of very handsome things, as a well-bred Spaniard always knows how, and then, beckoning to the person that attended him, bade him go and call out his comrades. He then asked me if I would walk to my old habitation, where he would give me possession of my own house again, and where I should see they had made but mean improvements. I walked along with him, but, alas! I could no more find the place than if I had never been there; for they had planted so many trees, and placed them in such a position, so thick and close to one another, and in ten years’ time they were grown so big, that the place was inaccessible, except by such windings and blind ways as they themselves only, who made them, could find. [Chapter II, "Intervening History of the Island," pp. 226-27]
In the lengthier programs of illustration across the nineteenth century artists have realised the return of the absent Governor, sixty-one-year-old Robinson Crusoe, to the island south of Trinidad and east of the mouth of the Orinococo — apparently administered jointly by those old enemies, Spain and Britain. Whereas George Cruikshank in 1831 realised the joyful reunion of Friday and his father, and Edward Henry Wehnert in 1862 included Friday and his father in the background of Crusoe's Second Landing on the Island, a title which underscores the very different manner in which the former castaway arrives, now honoured by the thriving European colony. Whereas Cruikshank enjoys an emotional scene that lends itself to lively caricature, Stothard embues the return with dignified solemnity and Wehnert with the overflowing emotion of male bonding. Paget, too, sees the moment as signifying Crusoe's welcome by a group or community. The Cassell illustrator, Matt Somerville Morgan, however, depicts two contrasting figures: a shaggy, roughly dressed Spaniard, obviously delighted to see his former comrade again, and a tall, well-dressed Crusoe, now representing the power of the Mother Country. In the background, several of Crusoe's crew watch the proceedings from the longboat with interest. Here, the border of young palm trees, to the right and left, fuses with the content of the scene rather than merely framing it.
Left: Thomas Stothard's tranquil study of Crusoe's returning to the island, Robinson Crusoe's first interview with the Spaniards. Centre: E. H. Wehnert's doubly emotional reunion, of the Spaniard and Crusoe and of Friday and his father: Crusoe 's Second Landing on the Island. Right: Wal Paget's parallel scene, a large-scale realisation of the Spaniard's welcoming an elegantly dressed Crusoe on the beach, "Do you not know me?" (1891). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Above: Cruikshank's small-scale realisation of the meeting on the beach of the long-absent son and the aged parent, Friday and his Father (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 26 March 2018