"The Pirates leaving the Island" for Daniel Defoe's "Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (1863-64)

The Pirates leaving the Island (page 245) — the volume's sixty-fourth composite wood-block engraving for Defoe's The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner. Related by himself (London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863-64). Part II, The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Chapter III, "The Fight with the Cannibals." Full-page, framed: 13.9 cm high x 22 cm wide.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

The Mutineers Exiled to a Remote Part of the Island

The humane governor, musing upon the sentence, considered a little upon it; and turning to the two honest Englishmen, said, “Hold; you must reflect that it will be long ere they can raise corn and cattle of their own, and they must not starve; we must therefore allow them provisions.” So he caused to be added, that they should have a proportion of corn given them to last them eight months, and for seed to sow, by which time they might be supposed to raise some of their own; that they should have six milch-goats, four he-goats, and six kids given them, as well for present subsistence as for a store; and that they should have tools given them for their work in the fields, but they should have none of these tools or provisions unless they would swear solemnly that they would not hurt or injure any of the Spaniards with them, or of their fellow-Englishmen.

Thus they dismissed them the society, and turned them out to shift for themselves. They went away sullen and refractory, as neither content to go away nor to stay: but, as there was no remedy, they went, pretending to go and choose a place where they would settle themselves; and some provisions were given them, but no weapons. About four or five days after, they came again for some victuals, and gave the governor an account where they had pitched their tents, and marked themselves out a habitation and plantation; and it was a very convenient place indeed, on the remotest part of the island, N. E., much about the place where I providentially landed in my first voyage, when I was driven out to sea in my foolish attempt to sail round the island. [Chapter III, "The Fight with the Cannibals," page 244]

Commentary

The present passage illustrated subtly unites the two halves of the Crusoe narrative, recalling Crusoe's attempting to circumnavigate the island in Crusoe sails out of his Creek in Chapter X, "Tames Goats." The illustrator has included five figures to suggest that the "honest" English settlers have provided their roguish countrymen with assistance in loading the boat; moreover, the illustrator has not included the livestock granted them by the Spanish governor, simply because depicting the animals would require the boat to be larger. Finally, the caption is somewhat misleading because the former mutineers (that is, the "pirates") are not in fact leaving the island; rather the Spanish settlers are compelling them to go into exile on a remote part of the island, so that they are merely leaving the relative security of the European settlement, which Matt Somerville Morgan in the next illustration calls the Spanish Village (page 249).

Related Material

Bibliography

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner. Related by himself. With upwards of One Hundred Illustrations. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863-64.

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Exciting Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner, as Related by Himself. With 120 original illustrations by Walter Paget. London, Paris,and Melbourne: Cassell, 1891.

Last modified 29 March 2018