"The Englishmen bind the Savage to a Tree" for Daniel Defoe's "Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (1863-64)

The Englishmen bind the Savage to a Tree (page 257) — the volume's sixty-seventh 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." Half-page, framed: 11.2 cm high x 13.3 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.]

Passage Illustrated

The belief that the savages were all killed made our two men come boldly out from the tree before they had charged their guns, which was a wrong step; and they were under some surprise when they came to the place, and found no less than four of them alive, and of them two very little hurt, and one not at all. This obliged them to fall upon them with the stocks of their muskets; and first they made sure of the runaway savage, that had been the cause of all the mischief, and of another that was hurt in the knee, and put them out of their pain; then the man that was not hurt at all came and kneeled down to them, with his two hands held up, and made piteous moans to them, by gestures and signs, for his life, but could not say one word to them that they could understand. However, they made signs to him to sit down at the foot of a tree hard by; and one of the Englishmen, with a piece of rope-yarn, which he had by great chance in his pocket, tied his two hands behind him, and there they left him; and with what speed they could made after the other two, which were gone before, fearing they, or any more of them, should find way to their covered place in the woods, where their wives, and the few goods they had left, lay. They came once in sight of the two men, but it was at a great distance; however, they had the satisfaction to see them cross over a valley towards the sea, quite the contrary way from that which led to their retreat, which they were afraid of; and being satisfied with that, they went back to the tree where they left their prisoner, who, as they supposed, was delivered by his comrades, for he was gone, and the two pieces of rope-yarn with which they had bound him lay just at the foot of the tree. [Chapter III, "The Fight with the Cannibals," pp. 257-58]

Commentary

The present illustration subtly complements the previous one, Seizure of Sleeping Savages (page 253) because the English colonists do not spare the lives of most of the natives. However, like the Spaniards in the previous engraving, the Englishmen here feel "grieved" (p. 257) at the disagreeable necessity of murdering people whom they have, for the moment, at their mercy. The alternative, however — that the natives should escape to tell their fellows about whom they have discovered on the island — would expose the European settlement to attack and its inhabitants to annihilation.

The border of crossed spears points to the effectiveness of primitive weapons in the experienced hands of the Caribs. The stone hatchet (upper right), stone club (upper left), spears, and arrows would certainly be sufficient for the warriors to kill the Europeans, in spite of their firearms.

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